Smartphone use and the quality of life of medical students in the Kumaun Region, Uttarakhand

BACKGROUND: Once a device for telecommunication, now a powerful device bringing the whole world in one's palm, smartphones are increasingly becoming a common commodity among the medical students. Smartphones foster social interaction and facilitate multitasking and learning, but they also have some adverse effects. Young people, especially students, who are always inquisitive towards new technology, are likely to be affected by both these positive and negative impacts. OBJECTIVE: To assess smartphone use and its association with the quality of life (QOL) of medical students. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students of Government Medical College (GMC), Haldwani. All the students enrolled in MBBS course in GMC, Haldwani, who gave consent for participation and were present on the day of questionnaire administration, were included in the study. Smartphone addiction scale (SAS-SV), and WHO-BREF questionnaires for QOL were used for assessing smartphone use, and QOL of the medical students, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 395 medical students were included in the study; out of them, 42% considered themselves addicted to the smartphone. According to SAS-SV, smartphone addiction was found among 43.8% medical students. It was seen that the junior-most and senior-most batches were significantly less addicted to the smartphone (p-value < 0.001). Male students were more addicted (OR = 1.45, CI = 0.962–2.174) to the smartphone as compared to females. The QOL of the students was significantly affected by smartphone use in all domains assessed (p-value ranging from < 0.001 to 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Smartphone addiction is high among medical students and it has a significant negative impact on their QOL.