ArticleBMC public health2025
Exploring associations between problematic technology-dependent behaviors, physical and mental health, sleep quality, and academic procrastination among medical students.
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The Relationship Between Loneliness and Academic Stress: The Mediating Role of Lack of Academic Organization Among Social Work Students in Chile.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe increasing medical students' reliance on digital resources for education, socialization, and stress relief has made these gadgets essential in their lives, potentially leading to changes in mental health, sleep quality, academic performance and physical activity, through the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Problematic Technology-Dependent Behavior (PTDB), including internet addiction and smartphone addiction, on mentioned variables and identify the pathway of these effects in this group.
methodsIn current cross-sectional study, we hypothesized a model in which PTDB and physical activity influence sleep quality and academic procrastination directly and also through the mediation of different mental health problems. A total of 346 medical students completed the Persian versions of validated questionnaires assessing smartphone addiction, internet addiction, sleep quality, academic procrastination, mental health status, and physical activity. We assessed our hypothesis in a path analytic model.
resultsPTDB showed a significant correlation with both poor sleep quality and mental health issues (specifically stress) in medical students (all p < 0.05). It impacts sleep quality indirectly, through the mediation of anxiety and stress (all p < 0.05). Additionally, PTDB contributed to academic procrastination both directly and indirectly (all p < 0.05); although, the direct correlation amount was far more than the indirect one (0.42 vs. 0.07). Interestingly, physical activity did not show any correlation with other variables in this study (p > 0.05).
conclusionThis research unveiled the role of anxiety and stress in carrying the effects of PTDB on sleep quality and academic procrastination which suggested a novel approach for screening mental health problems in medical students. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.
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