DR. SAMAR LAFI AL-JOHANI
DOI: https://doi.org/Background: Although smartphone has become an essential part of health improvement, when it is overused, it can affect negatively the body and psychological health, directly or indirectly.
Objectives: To explore smartphone addiction phenomenon and its determinants and adverse effects among medical students.
Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at medical colleges (College of medicine, college of medical sciences, and college of pharmacy), Tabuk University among regular students enrlled during 2024-2025 academic year. Arabic electronic self-administered questionnaire was distributed to participants, including socio-demographic information, smartphne addiction risk facts and consequences of smartphone use as well as the problematic use of mobile phones (PUMP) scale to assess smartphone addiction.
Results: A total of 388 students were included in thee study. Femaes represented 65.2% of them. Over half (54.3%) of the students used three applications (apps) daily on smartphone. The main purpose of using these applications was social networking (89.7%), followed by academic tasks (57.7%). The most used applications were TikTok (60.1%), Snapchat (52.6%) and WhatsApp (46.1%). The mean±standard deviation of the total smartphone score was 64.63±15.82, out of a mapossible maximum of 100. Total smartphone addiction score was significantly associated with feeling less energetic, decreased sleep hours, less exercised, more fast food consumption, more gained weight and less academic performance.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the study revealed that Tabukmdical university students in Saudi Arabia are at risk of smartphone addiction and this adversely impact their sleep hours, energy level, eating behaviour, weight gain, less physical exercise, and lower academic performance.
