Assessment of Nomophobia and Its Correlation with Sleep Quality in Medical Students of North-western Region of Uttar Pradesh: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Nomophobia, or the fear of being without a mobile phone, is an emerging psychological condition that raises concerns among medical students.Medical students show a high dependency on smartphones for academic and social purposes, which may expose them to sleep deprivation.To assess its significance, this study examines the relationship between nomophobia and sleep quality among medical students.Objective:• To estimate the prevalence of nomophobia among medical students.• To evaluate the sleep quality of medical students.• To investigate the association and correlation between the nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q) score and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI score). Materials and methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 1st-year medical students at Government Medical College in the North-Western Uttar Pradesh region.The severity of nomophobia and the sleep quality of all participants were assessed using the NMP-Q and the PSQI, respectively.Informed consent was obtained from the participants before data collection began.Later, this data was collected and analyzed using Excel to determine the correlation between nomophobia scores and sleep quality indices for each student.Results: Out of the 100 participants, 54% were men and 46% were women, with the majority belonging to the 18-20 years age-group (55%).Moderate nomophobia was observed in 66% of students and severe nomophobia in 20%.Poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) was observed in 62% of the participants.Although a higher proportion of poor sleep quality was observed among students with moderate and severe nomophobia, the association was not statistically significant (χ 2 = 2.53, p = 0.11).However, a weak positive correlation was observed between nomophobia and PSQI scores (Spearman's r s = 0.20, p = 0.03).Conclusion: Nomophobia and poor sleep quality were commonly observed among medical students.A weak positive correlation was found between nomophobia and sleep quality; however, no statistically significant association was observed in the categorical analysis.These findings suggest a possible relationship but do not establish causation.Further studies are required to explore this relationship and its implications for mental well-being and academic performance.