Impact of smartphone addiction on sleep quality and perceived stress among undergraduate health professions students: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: In this era of the smartphone revolution, users are prone to becoming addicted to its convenience. The youth are the most susceptible to smartphone addiction. Since 2000, the smartphone revolution has brought noticeable changes to people's daily lives by providing more convenience. Still, it has also had many adverse effects on interpersonal relationships, psychological well-being, and physical health. Aim: To find out the impact of smartphone addiction on sleep quality and perceived stress among undergraduate health professions students. Methods: The study was conducted following a quantitative cross-sectional study design with face to face survey among 532 undergraduate health professions students. These studies use the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) to assess smartphone addiction, to assess the sleep quality of the students, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used, and the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) was used to assess perceived stress. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 26. Results: The level of smartphone addiction score among the undergraduate health professions students mean was high (105.22 ±22.528), where 99 indicates the presence of smartphone addiction according to SAS. The level of sleep quality score mean was (5.93±2.746). The PSQI Global score mean (7.4±5.1). In this study, sleep quality mean 5.93, so the student‟s sleep quality is good. The stress level of the student‟s mean was (18.59±6.176), 72.4% moderate stress level, 9.2% high-stress level and 18.4% low-stress level. The correlation between smartphone addiction and perceived stress score was statistically significant (p-value=.01), and sleep quality and the perceived stress score were statistically significant (p-value=.00). However, the correlation was not statistically significant (p-value=.101) between smartphone addiction and sleep quality. Conclusion: This study found smartphone addiction and perceived stress are associated with each other, perceived stress and sleep quality are associated with each other and health professions students get a vital message to maintain their health-related factors and occupations. This study will provide clinicians, health professions students, teachers, parents and policymakers with helpful information on reducing high smartphone addiction and stress and generating healthy sleep and well-being. Keywords: Undergraduate students, Students, Smartphone addiction, Sleep quality, Perceived Stress.