Impact of mobile phone usage on psychological health status and academic performance of under graduate students in a private medical college

Abstract

Introduction: Mobile Phone Culture is most widely spreading in the present era. It has become an essential part of modern life and is playing a vital role in decreasing distance and increasing communication among people. Mobile phone has affected almost every field of life but its effects on students learning especially at college level are deep and are multidimensional. With the passage of time, the darker side of technology is also revealed. Mobile devices have both positive and negative effects on human health and behaviour. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using purposive 120 sampling among newly intake of undergraduate students in tertiary care teaching hospital. Those who were absent and, withdraw during data collection as well as uncompleted questionnaire were excluded in the study. A pilot study was administered to 120 undergraduate students who were not participating in the study. Result showed that the students did not have difficulty in understanding and completing the questionnaire. Then, actual study was carried out. Result: Result from this study found 45.0% of students spent 4-6 hours a day to use the smartphone. Meanwhile, 30% of the students spend more than seven hours on and this figure is quite worrying. This is because time allocation for smartphones more than 5 hours is inappropriate for a student who should prioritize academic issues and concentrate on learning rather than social issues as it will affect the academic achievement. The finding of this study showed that most of the students used smartphones to browse social networking sites. Conclusion: It was observed in our study that many students use mobile phones excessively and inappropriately. They are giving more preference for mobile phone usage than their health and academics. As mobile phone usage is highly prevalent among college students their impact on mental health and academic performance should be discussed and judicial use recommended.