Association of General Health, Quality of Sleep, Overuse of Cell Phone, Social Networks and Internet Addiction among Medical Sciences Students

Background: Mobile phones are quickly becoming the dominant communication device in people’s lives, particularly in youngsters, which carries psychological dependency towards mobile phones which leads to addiction to them. Due to overuse of mobile usage, it can impact our sleep patterns, and mental status which leads to depression, and anxiety. Objective: To find the association between general health, quality of sleep, mobile phone overuse, social network use, and internet addiction among medical science students. Methodology: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted over six months at four major medical institutions in Sukkur. The study included undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, and Doctor of Physical Therapy students, with a sample size of 200 participants selected through non-probability convenient sampling. Students using mobile phones for no more than three hours per day were recruited. Those having psychotic disorders, medical illnesses, or those unwilling to participate were excluded from the study. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire for assessing mental health, and a 7-item mobile phone use questionnaire. Data was analyzed and presented in the form of frequencies and percentages used for descriptive statistics and the chi-square test was applied to examine associations between mobile phone use and mental health. Results: Among the participants, 71% were female, with a mean age of 21.64±2.07 years. The study found a significant link between total mobile phone usage and mental health, with longer usage associated with poorer mental health (p=0.046). Female gender also showed a significant relationship with mental health (p=0.001). Students using phones for over five hours daily had poorer mental health, while moderate use (3 to 5 hours) was linked to better outcomes (p=0.046). Conclusion: Mobile phone overuse and internet addiction are linked to negative mental health outcomes and poor sleep quality in medical students.