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A study on patterns of use of mobile phone and nomophobia in medical undergraduate students during a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

P. Bhatnagar ,
S. Tarachandra  and
S. Undaru
P. Bhatnagar*
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, India
S. Tarachandra
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, India
S. Undaru
Affiliation:
Psychiatry, K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, India
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The governments of various countries enforced a lockdown to contain the COVID -19 pandemic. As the colleges remain closed, the academic teachings for students was conducted online. The mobile phone remained the main source for academics and entertainment during this period.

Objectives

To assess patterns of use of mobile phone by Medical Undergraduate students prior to and during the COVID-19 lockdown. To assess Nomophobia among same participants.

Methods

This study was done by an online survey method after obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. A validated questionnaire on patterns of mobile phone use and the Nomophobia Questionnaire(NMP-Q) was completed by the medical students (n=187) who consented to participate in the study

Results

Prior to the pandemic lockdown, 52.9% of the participants used the mobile phones for 2-4 hours per day with 78% of the usage in social media. During lockdown, 89.3% of the participants reported an increase in the usage of mobile phones. 35.65% reported an increase in use by 2-4 hours everyday. About 30.5 % used the mobile phone for 6-8 hours per day. 80.2 % reported a maximum usage for social media. 59.45% reported a maximum usage for online academics. 33.7% frequently checked their phones once in 15 minutes. About 60.43% of the participants were in the moderate and 21.4% in the severe category of nomophobia.

Conclusions

There is an increase in mobile phone usage during the lockdown with a significant proportion of students in the moderate and severe category of nomophobia.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

nomophobiaCOVID-19 lockdownMedical Studentsmobile phone
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S671
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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