ArticleBMC psychology2020
The relationship of smartphone addiction with psychological distress and neuroticism among university medical students.
Article in BMC psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between smartphone addiction, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt: a systematic review.PeerJ · 2026Pooled it
- Association of Internet addiction with psychiatric symptom levels and sleep disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological "effects" of digital technology: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- A Vicious Cycle of Psychological Distress and Problematic Mobile Phone Use in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Test of a Dual Metacognitive Pathway.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- The digital well-being among learners in higher education: a scoping review.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Sleep bruxism and daily life behaviors in university students: a cross-sectional analysis of free time management, sedentary behaviors, and smartphone use.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder and smartphone addiction among public sector employees in Iran.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Smartphone addiction, emotional coping strategies, and mental health symptoms in Chinese university students: a gender-based analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Personality and Smartphone Addiction in Romania's Digital Age: The Mediating Role of Professional Status and the Moderating Effect of Adaptive Coping.Journal of Intelligence · 2025Article
- Psychometric properties of the Arabic generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-5) in a non-clinical sample of Arabic-speaking adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The relationship between smartphone addiction and anxiety: a cross-sectional study among Moroccan nursing students.The Pan African medical journal · 2025Article
- Impact of smartphone addiction on health status, mental well-being, and sleep quality among medical students in Sudan.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- The relationship between autistic traits and problematic smartphone use in adolescents: The serial mediating role of anxiety and executive dysfunction.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- The effect of neuroticism on mobile phone addiction among undergraduate nursing students: a moderated mediation model.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Smartphone addiction, depression, distress, eustress, loneliness, and sleep deprivation in adolescents: a latent profile and network analysis approach.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- The relationship between social media dependency and psychological distress due to misunderstanding and fear of COVID-19 in medical students.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Threats of nursing productivity in the digital era: investigating the interplay between smartphones addiction and procrastination behavior among nurses.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Prevalence of mobile phone addiction and poor mental health, and factors associated with mental health among medical students in Southeast Iran.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Smartphone Usage and Addiction among Undergraduate Dental Students in South India: A Cross-sectional Study.Addiction & health · 2024Article
- The effect of smartphone addiction on adolescent health: the moderating effect of leisure physical activities.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSmartphone plays a vital role in higher education as it serves as a device with multiple functions. Smartphone addiction was reported on the rise among college and university students. The addiction may result in unwanted consequences on their academic performance and psychological health. One factor that consistently relates to psychological distress and smartphone addiction is the neurotic personality trait. This study explored the relationship of smartphone addiction with psychological health and neuroticism among USM medical students.
methodsA cross-sectional study was carried out on medical students in a public medical school. DASS-21, the neuroticism-subscale of USMaP-i and SAS-SV were administered to measure psychological distress, neuroticism, and smartphone addiction of the medical students. Spearman correlation was performed to examine the correlation between smartphone addiction with psychological distress and neuroticism. Simple linear regression was performed to investigate relationship factors of smartphone addiction.
resultsA total of 574 medical students participated in this study. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 40.6%. It was higher among male (49.2%) compared to female (36.6%) medical students. The result showed a fair positive correlation between smartphone addiction and psychological health (rdepression = 0.277, p-value < 0.001; ranxiety = 0.312, p-value < 0.001; rstress = 0.329, p-value < 0.001). However, there was a poor positive correlation between smartphone addiction and neuroticism (r = 0.173, p-value < 0.001). The simple linear regression showed a significant increase in the levels of depression, anxiety, stress and neuroticism upon one unit increase in smartphone addiction (bdepression = 0.101, p-value < 0.001; banxiety = 0.120, p-value < 0.001; bstress = 0.132, p-value < 0.001; bneuroticism = 0.404, p-value < 0.05). These results indicated significant relationships between smartphone addiction, psychological health and neuroticism.
conclusionThis study suggested a high prevalence of smartphone addiction among medical students, particularly in male medical students. The smartphone addiction might lead to psychological problems and the most vulnerable group is the medical student with the neurotic personality trait.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.