Trial reportBMC medicine2025
Smartphone screen time reduction improves mental health: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of ultrasound-guided stellate ganglion block in poststroke bulbar palsy: a double-blind placebo-controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2026Trial
- Recreational screen use and internalizing problems from preadolescence to young adulthood in a longitudinal twin cohort with co-twin comparison.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Mobile application traffic reveals multifunctional use patterns in Parisian parks.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Building a Science-Driven Business: How National Institutes of Health Funding Enabled an Evidence-Based Approach to Maternal Mental Health Innovation.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Associations of excessive smartphone duration and unlock frequency with non-suicidal self-injury in college students.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Insomnia among vocational college students in China: Status and influencing factors.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Urban Indian young adults' perceptions of a healthy lifestyle and its associated factors: a multi-city qualitative inquiry using thematic analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Physical activity motivation is inversely associated with anxiety: a cross-sectional serial mediation analysis involving smartphone addiction symptoms and sleep quality in medical undergraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The role of FoMO and nomophobia in explaining the relationship between doomscrolling and poor sleep quality.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Screen time and sleep problems in South Indian preschoolers: a community-based cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Policies and public health initiatives to mitigate the mental health impact of internet use among children and adolescents.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Excessive Screen Time Among U.S. High School Students: Mental Health, Suicidal Ideation and Social Image Factors.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Factors Associated with Adolescent Mental Ill-Health: a Decision Tree Analysis.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2025Article
- Article
- "I Haven't Had Anyone Talk to Me About Phone Use, At All": Primiparous Mothers' Conversations About Smartphone Use While Caregiving.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Association Between Problematic TikTok Use and Procrastination, Loneliness, and Self-Esteem: A Moderation Analysis by Sex and Generation.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- The influence of smartphone reduction on heart rate variability: a secondary analysis from a randomised controlled trial.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSmartphone screen time has risen sharply in recent years. Even though an association between smartphone use and mental health is well documented, it is still unclear whether this is simply a correlation or causality. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of smartphone screen time reduction on mental health indicators.
methodsThis non-blinded, parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT) was performed to investigate the impact of a 3-week screen time reduction to ≤ 2 h/d in healthy students on stress (PSQ), well-being (WHO-5), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), and sleep quality (ISI) at baseline (t0), post-intervention (t1), and at follow-up (t2 = 6 weeks after t1). For the intention to treat analysis, repeated measures ANOVAs and post-hoc tests (for time as well as group differences) were performed and effect sizes were presented as partial eta squared (η
resultsIn total, 111 out of 125 healthy students (70 females; mean age = 22.68 ± 2.6 years; mean screen time = 276 ± 115.1 min/day) were randomly assigned to intervention-(n = 58; 3 weeks of screen time reduction to ≤ 2 h/day) or control group (n = 53). Although no differences were observed at baseline (t0), significant post-intervention (t1) effects of small to medium size were observed on well-being (η
conclusionsThe study highlights mental health improvements through smartphone screen time reduction. Three weeks of screen time reduction showed small to medium effect sizes on depressive symptoms, stress, sleep quality, and well-being. The results suggest a causal relationship, rather than a merely correlative one, between daily smartphone screen time and mental health.
trial registrationThe study was preregistered on Open Science Framework (trial registration number: A9K76) on November 8, 2023.
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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.