Problematic smartphone use among Lebanese adults aged 18-65 years using MPPUS-10

Background: While substance abuse and other forms of addiction are well established in the medical literature, problematic smartphone use is still under-diagnosed and potentially a widespread and serious form of addiction. Most of the literature is focused on adolescents and university students. We aimed to determine the extent of problematic smartphone use among adults aged 18 to 65. Methodology: This study is a cross-sectional study among Lebanese adults (18-65y) using a phone-based survey. The questionnaire included basic demographics, types of smartphone use, the validated MPPUS-10, and questions screening for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Results: A total of 207 adults participated with a response rate of 69%. The mean score on the MPPUS-10 questionnaire was 44.3 +/- 17.3. The prevalence of problematic smartphone use among Lebanese adults was found to be 20.2% with 95% CI [14.7,25.7]. Chatting was the most used smartphone function on a typical day. Higher MPPUS score was associated with people who were younger (mainly 18-34 years), unmarried, and had mobile data subscription. The internal reliability and consistency of the MPPUS-10 in our sample was acceptable. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three components that explained 59.3% of the total variance with intrinsic value above 1. Conclusion: This eye-opening study reveals that smartphone problematic use among older adults is considerable and warrants further exploration. Smartphones are turning into essential accessible communication tools of daily life. Adults should be aware when to draw the line to avoid problematic use of their smartphones.