Association of Smartphone Addiction and Perceived Stress Among Physiotherapy Students of Ahmedabad: An Observational Study

Abstract Background: Usage of smartphones has reached a stage of addiction among college students. Addiction to smartphones has been related to stress in different group of people like IT professionals, businesspeople, medical students, etc. This study aimed to find levels of smartphone use and stress and the association between smartphone usage and stress among physiotherapy students. Materials and Methods: An observational analytical study was conducted among physiotherapy students, through Google Form, containing demographics and two scales: Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). All physiotherapy students willing to participate were included. Spearman’s coefficient was used to find the association between outcomes. Results: A total of 110 complete responses, 38 males and 72 females, were obtained with mean age of participants (20.45 ± 1.63) years. The SAS mean score was 29.86 ± 10.94 for males and 31.11 ± 10.49 for females. The mean PSS score was 44.39 ± 5.46 for males and 45.27 ± 8.36 for females. Association between outcomes showed r = 0.248, P = 0.009. Conclusion: Physiotherapy students were at high risk for smartphone addiction and had elevated levels of perceived stress. A statistically significant weak positive association between outcomes is seen.