Digital Screen Usage Amongst Doctors: Demographics, Patterns of Use and Effect of Health Parameters

Abstract

Background: Advances in digital technology have led to widespread availability of digital devices and consequent increased usage amongst across the population including practising healthcare professionals. Increased ‘Digital Screen time’ and its effect on physical, psychological health, and sleep patterns has been predominantly evaluated in children, adolescents and adults from various walks of life. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this survey was to evaluate the impact of Digital Screen usage (time and patterns) spent on portable and desktop digital devices amongst physicians, surgeons and radiologists. Material & Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of an 11-part questionnaire (multiple choice questions and free text box) was circulated amongst orthopaedic surgeons, radiologists and physicians in India and the UK, to evaluate demographics, speciality and place of practice; Digital platform usage reasons and time; effect on mental health, physical health, sleep time amongst practising healthcare professionals. Results: There was an even spread amongst the various age groups. Smartphones were the commonest device utilised for digital screening in 90 (67.7%) doctors with 29 (38.5%) of doctors reporting more than five hours of daily screen time. Sixty-three (47%) of doctors used this for academic purposes, whereas 43 (32%) used it for entertainment more than for academic purposes. Thirty-nine doctors (29%) were unaware of whether screen usage affected mental health. Seventy-two (53%) were of the opinion that screen usage was having a negative effect on their physical health whilst 81 (60%) thought that it was having an adverse effect on their sleeping time respectively. Conclusion: A significant proportion of doctors appear to be using digital devices beyond the recommended ‘Digital Screen time’ by various national or international healthcare organisations. There is an emerging need to highlight the deleterious effect of excessive ‘Digital Screen time’ on various health parameters and be part of a global health narrative to mitigate ill-effects and a sustainable lifestyle.