Smartphone addiction among Qatar University students: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aims: The aims of this study were to: (I) estimate the prevalence of SPA among students in Qatar University (QU); (II) assess the correlation between daily duration of smartphone use (SPU) and SPA; (III) assess the relationship between SPA with (a) current Grade point Average (GPA), (b) psychological distress, and (c) students' perceived negative impact of SPU on their learning and academic performance, sleep at night, social activity, and physical and mental health. Methods: We used a cross-sectional study using a self-administered survey to address the aims of the study. An electronic survey was distributed to all QU students registered in the Fall 2019 in addition to a paper survey distribution to fifteen classes, selected at random from all colleges in QU. The survey used smartphone addiction scale (SAS) to measure SPA; General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ-28) to measure the likelihood of student having 'psychological distress'; ten statements to identify students perceived negative impact of SPU on academic performance, sleep at night, physical and mental health, and social activity; current GPA as a measure of academic performance. Descriptive statistics and multivariable linear and logistics regression analyses were performed to analyses the data. The Study was ethically approved QU institutional review Board. Results: A total of 717 students participated in the study. The mean daily duration of SPU among students was 6.5 hours per day (SD= 3.7), and he prevalence of SPA was 59%. Duration of SPU in hours and SPA score (r=0.282, p= <0.001). The prevalence of psychological distress among students was 51.0%. Increase in daily duration of SPU, male gender, presence of psychological stress, not having a chronic disease, and not performing physical exercise in the previous week were independently associated with increased odds of SPA. We found a significant interaction between gender and psychological distress with SPA. Male students with psychological distress were at lower odds of SPA than female students with psychological distress (OR= 0.39; 95% CI 0.17, 0.87). SPA was a statistically significant predictor of all included domains of perceived negative impact of SPU, including sleep at night, learning in class, study time, academic performance, physical and mental health, and social activity. After adjustment for significant variables, students with no SPA had increased odds of having higher current GPA category by 2.04 times (1.05, 3.95) than students with SPA. The characteristics of students did not vary significantly according to survey completion method. The sensitivity analyses showed similar findings between the predictors and the outcome variables in all analyses. Therefore, our sensitivity analyses suggest that our findings are unlikely to have been affected by selection bias, response bias, or social acceptability bias. Conclusions: SPA is highly prevalent among QU students. SPA or longer duration of SPU have negative impact on academic performance, psychological distress, and perceived physical and mental health, and social activity.