Abstract

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY ON ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SMARTPHONE USAGE AND HEALTH PROBLEM IN STUDENTS

Polam. Raja Sekhar Reddy* and Goli. Prasanna Lakshmi

ABSTRACT

Today’s students are Tomorrow’s citizens. Smartphone usage is beneficial to them in learning some new things, However excessive Smartphone usage has associated with health problems in students. This study aimed to determine the association between the Smartphone usage and associated Health problems like Headache, neck pain depression, fatigue, stress in undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: A Prospective study was conducted with a sample size of n= 327 students in a college by self designed Questionnaire form. The sample include age group of 11- 25 who are using smart phones for more than 2 hours per day or more than 16 hours per week. Results: A total of n= 327 (p<0.05) students were considered for the study in which males (n=178), females (n=149). Students who are using Smartphone equal or less than 3 hours are considered as Short term users and students who are using more than 3 hours are considered as Long term users. As time duration of Smartphone usage increased the risk of experiencing health problems tended to increase, with independent sample T- test (t- 8.5042, df- 12, p- value- <0.0001) of M= 110.43, SD- 23.80 for Long tern users compared with Short term users (M= 42.43, SD= 19.06). Conclusion: Long term Smartphone usage in students was independently associated with the development of health problems, which are not seemed to be mediated by the problems caused by smart phone usage.

Keywords: Smartphone, Health problems, Students, Long term usage, Depression.