Association of smartphone addiction with daily behaviors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among medical college students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the smartphone addiction among college students during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its association with daily behaviors and mental health,and to provide reference for heath education and psychological counseling for college students.@*Methods@#An observational study using online quyestionnaire was conducted among 10 357 college students of two provincial medical schools in Guangdong and Shanxi Province from February 24th to March 4th in 2020. Participants were investigated on demographic information, smartphone addiction, daily routine, physical activity, weight status, anxiety, and other health information. Logistic regression with inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) based on propensity score was used to analyze the association between smartphone addiction with daily behavior and mental health.@*Results@#The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 59.42%. The prevalence of phone addiction was higher in postgraduates, senior undergraduates, students with non-medical major, students living in GuangDong and those without regular exercise habit before vacation(χ 2=47.91，17.78，42.75，138.58，P<0.05). With IPTW, there were significant associations between smartphone addiction and late bedtimes (OR=1.82, 95%CI=1.66-1.98) and wake-up times (OR=1.55, 95%CI=1.44-1.68), more sedentary behaviors (OR=1.21, 95%CI=1.12-1.31), less moderate to vigorous physical activity (OR=1.33, 95%CI=1.22-1.44), anxiety (OR=2.98, 95%CI=2.52-3.40), weight gain(OR=1.27，95%CI=1.17-1.37) and other detrimental daily behavior and feelings.@*Conclusion@#High prevalence of smartphone addiction has been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with impaired daily behavior and mental health.