A comment on "nomophobic behaviors among smartphone using medical and engineering students in two colleges of West Bengal" letter by dasgupta et alx. (2017)

Addiction-like Behavior Associated with Mobile Phone Usage among Medical Students in Delhi

BACKGROUND

Mobile phone addiction is a type of technological addiction or nonsubstance addiction. The present study was conducted with the objectives of developing and validating a mobile phone addiction scale in medical students and to assess the burden and factors associated with mobile phone addiction-like behavior.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students aged ≥18 years studying in a medical college in New Delhi, India from December 2016 to May 2017. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Mobile phone addiction was assessed using a self-designed 20-item Mobile Phone Addiction Scale (MPAS). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 17.

RESULTS

The study comprised of 233 (60.1%) male and 155 (39.9%) female medical students with a mean age of 20.48 years. MPAS had a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.90). Bartlett's test of sphericity was statistically significant (P < 0.0001), indicating that the MPAS data were likely factorizable. A principal component analysis found strong loadings on items relating to four components: harmful use, intense desire, impaired control, and tolerance. A subsequent two-stage cluster analysis of all the 20-items of the MPAS classified 155 (39.9%) students with mobile phone addiction-like behavior that was lower in adolescent compared to older students, but there was no significant difference across gender.

CONCLUSION

Mobile phone use with increasing adoption of smartphones promotes an addiction-like behavior that is evolving as a public health problem in a large proportion of Indian youth.