Abstract

Background: Mobilephoneshavebecomeincreasinglypopularinrecentyears,especiallyinyounggeneration.Althoughtheseare convenientanduseful,teenagersarebecomingmoreand moredependentonthem.Aimsand
Objective:This studywas designed to assess the mobile phone usage pattern and its negative effects on psychological health, sleep, and academic performance in students of a medical university.MaterialsandMethods: A descriptive study was conducted on a total of 1,000 medical students aged between 17 and 24 years who were using mobile phone for at least 1 year. They were requested tofill a specially designed, self-administrated, pretested, questionnaire that comprised details of their frequency and pattern of using mobile phone and its effectsontheirpsychologicalhealth,sleep-relatedbehavioralissues,andacademicperformance.Thedatacollectedwerestatistically analyzed.Result:Amongthetotal1,000students,allofthempossessedtheirownmobilephone,withabout76.4%studentshaving smart phones. Major purpose of using the phone was for communication, coordination of activities, and in emergency situations, while others were also using it for downloading games, music, videos, and for style. Nighttime usage of mobile phone was highly significantly (po 0.0001) associated with difficulty in waking up, waking time tiredness, decline in study habits, difficulty in concentration,increaseinmissedclasses,andgoinglateforclasses.Totaltimespentonmobilephoneswassignificantly(po0.05) associatedwith wakingtimetirednessanddifficultyinwakingupandhighlysignificantly(po0.001)withdeclineinstudyhabits, increase in missed classes, and going late for classes. Conclusion: Besides the positive role of mobile phones in our daily lives, its overuse presents negative impact on psychological health, sleep, and academic performance of students. Hence, it is important to guide the students regarding efficient, safe, purposeful usage, and negative effects of mobile phones on health and environment.