The relationship of smartphone addiction with psychological distress and neuroticism among university medical students

Background: Smartphone 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. Methods: A 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. Results: A 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. Conclusion: This 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.