Smartphone addiction and its complications related to health and daily activities among university students in Saudi Arabia: A multicenter study

AIM: The aims of this study were to study the prevalence of smartphones addiction among college and university students in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and to determine the risk factors and complications associated with smartphone addiction. METHOD: This study was conducted in all provinces of KSA from December 2015 to June 2016 by sending questionnaire to student clubs of various universities through Survey Monkey. Questionnaire included (1) sociodemographics, (2) smartphone usage patterns and addiction behavior, (3) impact of smartphone usage on driving and medical complications, and (4) smartphone addiction scale. RESULT: The total number of participants was 1941 (response rate 80.9%) students representing most of the provinces of Saudi Arabia. The prevalence of smartphones addiction was 19.1%. Female participants were more addicted than male participants (P < 0.001). Smartphone addition was also significantly associated with musculoskeletal complication, upper limb, eyes and sleep complications. CONCLUSION: High frequent usage with prolonged duration of smartphone was associated with high risk to addiction. Furthermore, smartphone addiction had significant impact on performing daily activities, sleeping disorder, and health problems. Awareness about harm of smartphones addiction is required to provide to students and parents as well. Smartphones should not be given at younger age and it only be given when a child can differentiate its healthy and productive use from addiction.