Impact of nomophobia: A nondrug addiction among students of physiotherapy course using an online cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Smartphone addiction is known as nomophobia (NMP) which is a fear of not using mobile phone. More researches are available regarding NMP among the students of various professions. However, till date, to the best of our knowledge, there is no literature available on the impact of NMP on the academic performance among students pursuing physiotherapy course (SPPC). AIM: To determine the impact of NMP among SPPC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted by using Google Form platform utilizing validated NMP questionnaires (NMP-Q). A self-reported questionnaire regarding demographic data, information regarding smartphone use, last academic performance, and presence of musculoskeletal disorders was collected. A total of 157 students participated in this survey. Google Form automatically analyzed the collected data. RESULTS: The mean age of students was 22.2 ± 3.2 years; among them, 42.9% were male and 57.1% were female. Nearly 45% of students have been using smartphone for >5 years and 54% students have musculoskeletal disorders during their prolonged smartphone use. The mean NMP score with 95% confidence interval was 77.6 (72.96–82.15). There exists an inverse relation between the NMP scores (NMPS) and student's academic performance and no significant difference between NMP scores, P = 0.152. CONCLUSION: NMP among the SPPC have been established. There might be a negative impact between NMP and academic performance.