ArticlePloS one2023
Association between smartphone usage and health outcomes of adolescents: A propensity analysis using the Korea youth risk behavior survey.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Association between smartphone addiction, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt: a systematic review.PeerJ · 2026Pooled it
- Association Between Smartphone Screen Time and Mental Health Among Korean Adolescents: A National Representative Study.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Reciprocal associations between smartphone overdependence and anxiety in adolescents: evidence from a nationally representative survey in the Republic of Korea.Osong public health and research perspectives · 2026Article
- Article
- Associations of smartphone, computer, and television use with insufficient sleep duration and overweight/obesity among lithuanian adolescents: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Relationship Between Smartphone Use and Traumatic Tooth Fractures in Korean Adolescents.International journal of paediatric dentistry · 2025Article
- Adolescent Smartphone Overdependence in South Korea: A Place-Stratified Evaluation of Conceptually Informed AI/ML Modeling.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Problematic smartphone use and risk behaviors in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Smartphone use-related acute accommodative esotropia : A possible new paradigm of visual disorders associated with the use of modern technologies.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2025Article
- The roles of loneliness and self-control in the association between social avoidance and nomophobia among college students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Experience of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease Surgery Patients: Sentiment Analysis Using the Korean Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (KoBERT) Model.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- The Psychopathology of Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU): A Narrative Review of Burden, Mediating Factors, and Prevention.Health science reports · 2025Review
- The Relationship Between Excessive Screen Time, Self-Harm, and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Literature Review.Journal of child and adolescent psychiatric nursing : official publication of the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurses, Inc · 2025Review
- Behavioral and psychosocial factors associated with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Korean adolescents: a path analysis using the 2022 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey.Epidemiology and health · 2025Article
- Smartphone use, gender, and adolescent mental health: Longitudinal evidence from South Korea.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe aimed to investigate the association between smartphone use and adverse behavioral health outcomes using nationwide Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey data for 2017 and 2020.
methodsThe 2020 data (N = 54,809) were used to analyze the relationships between daily smartphone usage time (non-user, 0-2 h [hour], 2-4 h, 4-6 h, 6-8 h, and > 8 h), and adverse health outcomes (stress, sleep, depression, suicide, substance use, and smartphone overdependence). A 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) was used to control for confounding variables.
resultsA total of 40,998 adolescents with < 4 h/day and > 4 h/day of usage were included. Adolescents' mean smartphone usage time in 2020 increased compared to that in 2017 (weighted % of > 2 h/day; 64.3% vs. 85.7%). The curvilinear relationships between smartphone usage time and adverse health outcomes were prominent after > 4 h/day. Adolescents using smartphones 2-4 h/day showed no increased adverse health outcomes compared to non-users, except for smartphone overdependence. Using a smartphone > 4 h/day was significantly associated with stress perception (1.16; 1.11-1.22), suicidal ideation (1.22; 1.13-1.31), and substance use (alcohol, 1.66; 1.57-1.75) after PSM.
conclusionsOur study demonstrated the curvilinear relationship between smartphone usage time and adverse health outcomes in adolescents. Our findings can help establish smartphone usage guidelines for adolescents.
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