A study of mobile phone usage on sleep disturbance, stress and academic performance among medical students in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Today’s world has led students to mobile phone as a mode of communication and social networking. This also has bought about psychological dependency towards mobile phones which causes sleep deprivation and increased stress affecting them academically. However, very few studies were conducted among medical students. Hence, this study was attempted with an objective to assess the effect of mobile phone usage on sleep disturbance, stress and academic performance among under graduate medical students.Methods: An observational Study was conducted among under graduate medical students in KIMS, Tamil Nadu, during September to November 2016. Among first to final year students 203 were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected after obtaining the consent using a self administered questionnaire, containing demographic details, variables on mobile usages, PSQI and PSS scales. Mean, median, standard deviation and percentages were calculated; Chi square test and correlation coefficient were calculated at 5% level of significance.Results: Among 203 study participants everyone had smart phones which were used for communication and social media. The hours of usage of mobile ranged from 5 minutes to 10 hours per day. Most of them (61%) used during night hours, 72.4% of the study participants had poor sleep quality, 66.5% had moderate stress, 14.8% had severe stress. There was significant association of poor sleep quality and academic performance with mobile phone usage (p<0.01).Conclusions: There is an association of mobile phone usage with sleep quality and academic performance.

Smartphone Use and Sleep Quality in Chinese College Students: A Preliminary Study

“…Our findings on the significant relationships between poor sleep quality and excessive smartphone use (as indicated by more years of smartphone use and more hours of daily smartphone use) and more MPA-associated ICC are generally in line with existing international and Chinese studies, despite the different measures of smartphone overuse and MPA used (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). The difference between this study and other studies is that excessive smartphone use and MPA simultaneously contributed to the poor sleep quality of college students.…”

“…While smartphone use has made our lives more convenient, it also has negative effects on the health of users. For example, in the international literature, sleep problems in university students and adolescents have been significantly associated with mobile phone addiction (MPA) and various measures of problematic smartphone use, including long duration of smartphone usage, late-night smartphone use, bedtime smartphone use, and excessive use of a smartphone (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). In addition, there is evidence that smartphone overuse impairs cognition via its negative influences on mood and sleep (24).…”

Smartphone Addiction and Sleep Quality on Academic Performance of University Students: An Exploratory Research

“…Poor time management due to smartphone addiction may also be associated with the academic performance of adolescents. This is because phone addiction may lead to poor performance [40,41].…”