The Digital Impact: Investigating Smartphone Addiction in Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Smartphone use has grown rapidly worldwide, bringing both benefits and significant negative impacts such as impaired sleep, reduced attention, academic decline and strained relationships, particularly among youth. This study aims at investigating sociodemographic and behavioral predictors of smartphone addiction among young medical students to inform prevention and intervention strategies. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed 500 medical students from five colleges in Chattogram using a structured questionnaire covering sociodemographics, smartphone use patterns, the Smartphone Addiction Scale–Short Version (SAS-SV) Smartphone addiction was defined using SAS-SV cutoffs of ³31 for males and ³33 for females, with higher scores indicating greater risk. Data were analyzed in SPSS 26 using descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, correlations, Mann–Whitney U tests and binary logistic regression, with p < 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Sex was significantly associated with smartphone use duration (c² = 23.039, p = 0.003), as was residence area (c² = 22.502, p < 0.001), while income showed a modest association (c² = 12.775, p = 0.047). Logistic regression showed strong predictors of addiction, including >5 h/day use (OR = 6.61, p < 0.001), gaming (OR = 2.20, p = 0.043) social media use (OR = 2.41, p = 0.002) and night-time use (OR = 2.49, p < 0.001) with academic use being protective (OR = 0.54, p = 0.017). Using sex-specific SAS cut-offs (>31 for males, >33 for females) 78.8% of males and 44.4% of females were addicted (c² = 140.838, p < 0.001, j= 0.531). Conclusion: Smartphone addiction was highly prevalent among medical students, with longer daily use, gaming, social media, night-time use, and frequent phone checking increasing addiction risk, while academic use was protective. Sex-specific differences showed more males exceeding addiction cutoffs despite higher median scores in females, highlighting the need for targeted interventions.  

Chatt Maa Shi Hosp Med Coll J; Vol.25 (1); January 2026; Page 48-53