Document Type : Original Article
Authors
- . Sreemedha Choudhury
- . Indranil Saha 1
- . Tapas Kumar Som 1
- . Gautam Ghose 1
- . Manas Patra 2
- . Bobby Paul 3
1 Department of Community Medicine, IQ City Medical College, Durgapur
2 Department of Community Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, Midnapore, West Bengal
3 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Mobile phone dependence has become an emerging public health problem. This
cross‑sectional study was conducted to find out the mobile phone involvement and dependence
among undergraduate medical students in a Medical College of West Bengal, India.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A study was conducted at IQ City Medical College, Durgapur, District
Burdwan, West Bengal, India, during July–August 2015 among 252 undergraduate medical students.
Involvement and dependence were elicited by mobile phone involvement questionnaire (MPIQ) and
mobile phone dependence questionnaire (MPDQ), respectively. Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) software (version 19.0) was used for analysis.
RESULTS: About 14.9% of students were being highly involved with their mobile phone. The
mean score of MPIQ was greatest in domain 5, i.e. euphoria followed by domain 2, i.e. behavioral
salience and then domain 4, i.e. conflict with other activities. About 19.4% of males and 11.1% of
females had high dependence. Mean MPDQ score was higher among males, though it was not
significant statistically. Sex, total recharge, and total hours spent on mobile phone could explain
between 2.2% and 3.8% variance of the presence of dependence in binary logistic regression. Total
recharge (adjusted odds ratio 1.144) and total hours spent on mobile (adjusted odds ratio 1.135)
were positively associated with the presence of dependence.
CONCLUSION: Many students were highly involved and dependent on mobile phone and they had
already been experiencing some health‑related problems. There is a need to identify students having
high involvement and dependence so as to generate adequate awareness and plan educational or
treatment interventions accordingly.
Keywords
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