Frequency of Nomophobia among Medical Students of Rawalpindi Medical University

Abstract

Background: Nomophobia is defined as “The discomfort or anxiety felt when out of the mobile phone (MP) or computer contact. It is the fear of becoming technologically incommunicable, distant from the mobile phone or not connected to the web”. The frequency of nomophobia has increased over the past years and this condition has many negative consequences. The objective of our study is to find the frequency of nomophobia among medical students of Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU).Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) over the course of one year. The inclusion criteria were medical students of all five years of MBBS studying at RMU. Students who do not own or use a smart-phone were excluded from the study. Our sample size was 350 students, who were recruited by convenience sampling. For this study, The Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q)has been used which has 20 items. Each item is scored on a 7 point Likert scale. The total score ranges from 20 to 140. Results: The mean NMP-Q score of the male students was 82.96 (±21.06) and that of the female students was 78.52 (±23.69), with a p-value of 0.065, which is insignificant. Out of the total 350 students, the number of students with a mild level of nomophobia was 61(17.4%), with a moderate level of nomophobia was 216(61.7%), and with severe nomophobia was 73(20.9%).Conclusion: Measures are needed to be taken on both public and personal level to counter this issue of nomophobia, which is becoming highly prevalent in our society.