Smartphone Addiction among Students of Medical University in South India: A Cross-Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Background:Smartphone has become an integral part of our daily living. The problem of smartphone addiction is growing across the world especially among students. Aim: This study was conducted to know the magnitude of smartphone addiction among students of the medical university.Methods: It is a questionnaire based cross section observational study conducted at Yenepoya University campus, Mangalore, Karnataka State, South India, from July 2017 to November 2017 involving 328 students from all constituent colleges of University looking at smartphone usage among students. Results:328 students from all constituent colleges of University were taken as study sample; it had 48.2% males and 51.8% females. The mean age of the sample was 21.1 ± 3 years. All the students are using a smartphone. 46% of students using smartphone 4-6 hours per day and main use of smartphone were for social networking. Based on cut off values, 36.8 % of students were addicted to smartphone. Nearly half of the male students and a quarter of female students were addicted to smartphone. Conclusion: The problem of Smartphone usage/addiction has reached an alarming level. There is need to create awareness of the problem and plan effective intervention strategies.