Abhishek M.G.1 , P.S. Sudha2 , Amrutha G.N.3
BACKGROUND Mobile phones have become an essential and inevitable part of our daily life because of increase in population and rapid development in modern technology. Mobile phone usage has both advantages and disadvantages in the form of negative health effects like headache, and psychological problems. We wanted to determine the effect of smart phone usage on the academics, health and sleep patterns of undergraduate medical students. METHODS The study group consisted of undergraduate medical students of AIMS, who responded to a questionnaire and behaviour pattern like sleep deprivation. Loss of interest in academics etc. RESULTS 248 students have participated in this study with a mean age of 18.6. Out of 248 study students, 45.17 % students are male and 54.83 % were females. 18 % of the students were having more than one phone. 123 study participants (49.59 % of students) were having both study and sleep effected, 61 students (24.59 %) were complained only about study disturbance and in 41 students 16.53 % sleep was affected. Both study and sleep were affected in 23 participants (9.23 %). 82 % of participants replied that they feel uncomfortable without mobile phones and 64 % of the study students in our research had reported headache, ear pain due to ear phones. CONCLUSIONS There is significant correlation between smart phone usage for non-academic purpose like Facebook chatting and Instagram compared to academic activity. Headache, addictions, uncomfortable feeling and poor academic performance had significant correlation with increased smart phone usage.
