Gender difference in the associations between health literacy and problematic mobile phone use in Chinese middle school students

Abstract

Background Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) is becoming increasingly popular and has serious harmful effects on physical and mental health among adolescents. Inadequate health literacy (HL) is related to some risky behaviors and mental health problems in adolescents. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the relationship between HL and PMPU and the gender difference in the relationship among Chinese adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between HL and PMPU and explore gender difference in the associations. Methods A total of 22,628 junior and senior high school students (10,990 males and 11,638 females) in 6 regions of China participated in this study. HL and PMPU were measured by self-report validated questionnaires. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis were conducted in the study. Results Logistic regression analysis showed that students with inadequate HL are likely to have PMPU (OR = 2.013, 95% CI: 1.840–2.202), and different degrees of association can be seen in six dimensions. Besides, in both males and females, students with inadequate HL had a higher risk of PMPU (ORmale = 1.607, 95% CI: 1.428–1.807; ORfemale = 2.602, 95% CI: 2.261–2.994). Regarding the gender difference, the results showed that males had more PMPU than females, and the difference was more significant for students with adequate HL than those with inadequate HL (ORinadequate = 1.085, 95% CI: 1.016–1.159; ORadequate = 1.770, 95% CI: 1.490–2.101). Similarly, there were associations in the six dimensions. Conclusions HL decreases PMPU, and males have a higher risk of PMPU than females. These findings suggest a reasonable strategy to reduce PMPU by improving the HL level of adolescents.

Analysis of the mediating effect between ehealth literacy and health self-management of undergraduate nursing students’ mental health literacy

“…Mental health literacy was assessed using an adolescent mental health literacy assessment scale developed by Chinese scholar Danlin Li [ 22 ]. This was based on a conceptual framework of mental health literacy and a theoretical model of knowing, believing, and acting, based on an extensive literature review, group discussions, and expert interviews.…”

“…The scale was consistent with local Chinese cultural habits and had good reliability. It is widely used among Chinese high school and college students [ 22 , 23 ]. The Cronbach’s coefficient was 0.847.…”

Factors that Contributing in influencing Mobile Phone Usage among University Students

“…Therefore, the result revealed that gender, self-esteem and anxiety not the factors that contributes towards mobile phone usage among the university students. Eventually past studies indicated there have association between students and smartphone addiction (Li et al, 2023). Moreover, their study demonstrated male students were use mobile phone to access game apps and anxiety.…”

Factores de riesgo en el uso del teléfono móvil y de las redes sociales en los estudiantes universitarios

“…Nuestro estudio se desarrolla entre estudiantes, los cuales valoran su dependencia al móvil a través de un cuestionario, siendo un método ya empleado en otros estudios similares (Fekih-Romdhane et al, 2023;Li et al,2023). Ello permitirá diseñar un perfil de dependencia de los estudiantes universitarios al teléfono móvil y las redes sociales, identificándose posibles correlaciones entre distintas variables que pueden condicionar este uso, así como aportar conocimiento al debate de la posible consideración del uso abusivo de estas tecnologías como adicciones.…”