The Digital Toll: Correlating Nomophobia with Perceived Stress and Sleep Quality among First-Year Medical Undergraduates."
Authors: Dr Prashant Jain, Dr Kavita Singh, Dr Roopali Mittal, Dr Nidhi Jain, Dr Rinku Garg, Dr Randhir Singh
Keywords: Separation anxiety, Sleep disturbances, mobile dependency, Fear of no mobile, perceived stress.
Abstract:
Introduction: Nomophobia can be literally translated as ‘no-mobile-phone phobia’. It is the concern that people have when they cannot use their mobile phones or when they are separated from them. Nomophobic symptoms are especially prevalent among university students and significantly impact their quality of life, contribute to insomnia, affect academic performance, and increase symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression.
So to stress the need for intervention within the educational & clinical fields, we chose Nomophobia and its effect on sleep pattern and stress levels in medical students.
Material & methods:
It is observational cross sectional study in first year medical students. Respondents were selected on the basis of their willingness to participate in the study.
Nomophobia questionnaire, Perceived stress scale (PSS), The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used. The questionnaire was circulated in the form of google form. The students were informed that they’ll have to submit the mobile for 5-6 hours daily for 6 days. The data of NMP-Q, PSS & PSQI questionnaire were collected & analyzed.
Result:
Results showed that the intended use of mobiles was for study and entrainment (84.1 & 84.8% respectively). The nomophobia scores, stress levels & sleep score were statistically significant.
Conclusion:
The present study concluded that nomophobia is an emerging addiction. The overuse of the mobile can disturb the sleep pattern & increase the stress levels. Apart from other stressors, mobile phones have emerged as a significant additional stressor, which could be mitigated through more mindful usage of mobile phones.
