Medical students’ awareness of Personal Digital Assistant Devices’ impact on their health

AIMS: 1. To evaluate medical students’ awareness of personal digital assistant devices impacts on their overall health. 2. To estimate medical students’ hours on digital devices. 3. To determine the most common effect of personal digital assistant devices on medical student health. SETTINGS AND METHOD: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the college of medicine of a in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The participants were medical students, and a questionnaire consists of 3 sections was used. A sample of 289 medical students participated in the study. Kruskal–Wallis test was used to analyze the relationship between the knowledge score and the year of study. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED AND RESULTS: The research included medical students whose ages ranged from 19 to 25 years with a median (IQR) of 22.00 (21.00–23.00). Approximately, 56% of the participants were males, and the majority of the students were from year 3. The average hours spent daily while using PDA for studying was 5 hours with SD 2.7. 167 (58%) of the students reported that studying using PDAs has affected their life. The most experienced effects reported was dry eyes and vision problems 53 (54%). CONCLUSIONS: The current study revealed that the majority of medical students have adequate knowledge of PDAs’ effects on their health despite their continuous use. More attention should be paid to reduce the effects on their health by raising campaigns to increase the awareness of all the students and the community.