Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) among medical students in colleges of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy at King Saud University in Riyadh

BACKGROUND: Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is a dysfunctional chronic and extreme consumer attitude that attributes to negative overall impact on psychological and mental wellbeing. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to examine the prevalence of compulsive buying disorder (CBD) among medical college students, particularly from colleges of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. Secondary to this, we also examined (i) the association between sociodemographic factors and CBD; and (ii) the association between the five factors of CBD as per (II) Edward’s Compulsive Buying Scale (ECBS) and participants’ gender. METHOD: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 263 college students from the colleges of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy of King Saud University from February till March 2021. RESULTS: The results showed that the majority of participants were male (144, 54.8%) with mean age 20.1 ± 3.1 (range: 17–23); statistically significant difference was observed in compulsive buying disorder with respect to gender (P-value = 0.02), field of study (P < 0.0001) and educational year (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The study concluded that the prevalence of compulsive buying among university students was more frequent among female students in comparison to male students in Riyadh city. This study provided baseline data for the estimation of CBD prevalence among adolescent and youth in KSA, particularly Riyadh city.