Objectives Nomophobia, an abbreviation of “No mobile phone phobia”, is characterized by the illogical fear of being detached from the mobile phone or unable to use it. Research have provided evidence of an association between increased cellular phone use and multiple health issues, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and others. To our knowledge, there are no Lebanese studies about nomophobia, despite the high incorporation rate of mobile phones in Lebanon and the likelihood of suffering from anxiety, depression, and other conditions due to nomophobic attitudes. The study objectives were to validate and confirm psychometric properties of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) and examine the associations between particular psychological conditions (anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia and impulsivity) and nomophobia among a representative sample of Lebanese people. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out between January and July 2019. It enrolled 2260 residents of the community randomly selected from Lebanon’s Mohafazat. Two villages per sub-district and households from each village were chosen using a random sampling technique. A questionnaire was distributed randomly to the households. SPSS version 25 was used to perform the statistical analysis. A multinomial regression was computed taking the nomophobia categories as the dependent variable (and taking the absence of nomophobia as the reference category) and all variables that showed a significant association in the bivariate analysis as independent variables. Results A total of 2260 (80.71%) out of 2800 questionnaires distributed was collected back. The mean age of the participants was 27.98 ± 9.66 years (58.8% females). Moreover, the mean nomophobia score was 71.56 ± 26.92 (median = 71; minimum = 14; maximum = 140). The results showed that 46 (2.0%) had no nomophobia, 769 (34.1%) mild nomophobia [95% CI 0.322–0.361], 1089 (48.3%) moderate nomophobia [95% CI 0.463–0.504] and 349 (15.5%) severe nomophobia [95% CI 0.140–0.170]. Items of the nomophobia scale converged over a solution of three factors that had an Eigenvalue over 1 (Factor 1 = emotions associated to losing connectedness, Factor 2 = not being able to communicate, Factor 3 = not being able to access information; total variance explained = 66.65%, and Cronbach’s alpha = 0.948). The results of a multinomial regression, taking the nomophobia score as the dependent variable, showed that higher age was significantly associated with lower odds of having mild (aOR = 0.97), moderate (aOR = 0.93) and severe (aOR = 0.97) nomophobia respectively. Higher anxiety (aOR = 1.09) and higher insomnia (aOR = 1.04) were significantly associated with higher odds of having severe nomophobia. Conclusion The results suggest a positive correlation between nomophobia and psychological conditions. There is a need for longitudinal and prospective studies that furnish information with regards of the impact of time on the variables measured, in order to better understand the nature, causes, and attributes of nomophobia.

Background: Anxiety has been linked to higher blood pressure (BP) levels and a higher incidence of cardiovascular outcomes. Anxiety is also associated with antihypertensive medication non-adherence assessed indirectly by questionnaires, pill counts or pharmacy refill rates. In this study, we determine the association between anxiety and antihypertensive medication adherence measured directly by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HP LC-MS/MS). Methods: In this prospective study, 237 patients were recruited from the Hypertension Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire, 24-hr urine collection for HP LC-MS/MS and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) were done in all subjects as part of the study protocol. Patients who did not complete a 24-hr urine collection and/or an STAI questionnaire were excluded from the analysis. Results: Of the 180 patients included in the study, 137 participants were found to be adherent (taking all antihypertensive medications) (76%) and 43 patients were non-adherent to antihypertensive medications (24%). Group comparison using t-test revealed higher state (p=0.043) and trait (p=0.044) anxiety scores and higher ambulatory blood pressure levels (p<0.001) among non-adherent compared to adherent patients (Table 1). Conclusion: This is the first prospective study to demonstrate a strong association between antihypertensive medication adherence, higher anxiety levels and poorly controlled hypertension. These findings highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the management of hypertensive patients.

An elevated UFF/UFE was not present in this large cohort of patients with uncontrolled RHTN. This suggests that reduced conversion of cortisol to cortisone does not contribute to the development of RHTN.

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Objectives Assess the association between nomophobia and temperaments in the Lebanese population. Methods The cross‐sectional study was conducted between January and July 2019 (N = 2260). Results A total of 1089 of the participants (48.3%) appeared to have moderate nomophobia while 349 (15.5%) were found to exhibit severe nomophobia. Multivariable analysis showed that higher hyperthymic temperament (β = −0.34) was associated with less nomophobia, whereas higher irritable temperament (β = 0.43) was associated with more nomophobia. Practical implications The findings obtained from our study showed that a more irritable temperament was significantly associated with a more severe nomophobia, while hyperthymic temperament was associated with less nomophobia. They open up new perspectives for the evaluation of the temperaments among nomophobics with a better focus on the personality model and how they can predict nomophobia.