Severity Of Mobile Phone And Internet Use Among B.Sc. Nursing Students

Introduction

Tde moblle lecbor ln Inala dal grohn more bdan beneola erom 2001 bo arouna 60 mllllon lublcrlberl by mla-2005. Inala ll among bol 10 nablon ullng a lmarb oeeerlng moblle, lnberneb laeal eor corlorabe bullnell ana lroeelllonall. Arouna 60 mllllon oe lnberneb ulerl are erom Inala ana 19 bo 40 yearl age groul lecblon 85% ullng lnberneb ln Inala. Majorlby 85% oe lnberneb ulerl ln Inala are male, 15% ola men, 14% lcdool golng, 21% college lbuaenbl, 46% graauabel ana 26% lolb graauabel. A moblle ldone lurvey conaucbea ln 2010 luggelb bdab among 2,85,000 urban ana rural Inalanl coverlng all lbabe ana unlon berrlbory 574 allbrlcb 3175 bohnl ana 2,800 vlllagel ln Inala, 1,78,000 are moblle ulerl ana 25-35 yearl ll bde llngle largelb moblle ldone uler age 1 groul .

Comluberl are reaally avallable eor bde ule ln many nurllng lcdooll, collegel, llbrary ana dolllball. Tde lnberneb ll bobd convenlenb ana anonymoul. Inberneb dal many euncblonl, ll ulea bo gabder lneormablon aboub aavancea becdnology ln nurllng lnbervenblonl ana gabderlng bde aaba aboub obder dealbd relabea llluel, bo meeb neh erlenal, bo cdab hlbd currenb erlenal ana al a lource oe enberbalnmenb².

Ezoe eb al. (2000) conaucbea a lbuay ln Olaka among 43 male ana 155 eemale nurllng lbuaenbl bo allell bde relablonldll oe lerlonallby ana lleelbyle hlbd moblle ldone aelenaence. Tde relulbl ldohea bdab eemale nurllng lbuaenbl hlbd dlgder bralb oe exbroverllon ana neuroblcllm ana undealbdy lleelbyle are lrone bo dave dlgd level oe mobile phone dependency³.

A survey study conducted to assess the impact of mobile phone and the internet use on self-reported behavioural changes among 542 undergraduate college students of Udupi district in 2007 by Swapna Jose. She found that 53.3% of the students reported that they use to chat with friends, 0.85% students reported of chatting with family members⁴.

The information gathered by the study can be used by nursing professionals to understand its relevance to their work as well as for initiating and maintaining communal effort to prevent the harmful effects of media overuse.

Methods and Materials

The descriptive survey design was adopted and study was conducted among 114 BSc. nursing students in Manipal College of Nursing Manipal using convenient sampling technique. Administrative permission was obtained from Dean, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal and heads of the nursing institutions to conduct pretesting, reliability, pilot study and main study. Informed consent was taken from the study subjects. The data was collected during the month of January 2012.

Background information was collected by using a demographic proforma which had 18 items. The severity of mobile phone use was assessed using a Mobile phone addiction test which is a six point Likert scale. The scale had 15 items. There were 6 alternatives not at all, rarely, occasionally, frequently, very often, always. The response was scored as not at all -0, always-1, very often-2, frequently-3 occasionally-4, rarely-5. The maximum score was 75 and minimum score was 0. The score obtained was classified which include severe addiction (65-75), moderate addiction (55-64), mild addiction (45-54), no addiction (<45). The internet addiction test was used to assess the severity of internet addiction. This is a 20 items questionnaire on which respondent are asked to rate item on a six point Likert scale, covering the degree to which their internet use affects their routine, social life, sleeping pattern and feelings. The scale had 20 items. There were 6 alternatives rarely, occasionally, frequently, very often, always and does not apply. The maximum score was 100 and minimum score was 0. The scores were arbitrarily classified as severe addiction (80-100), moderate addiction (50-79), mild addiction (20-49) and no addiction (<20). Items were constructed after reviewing the literature and existing tools and content validity was established by giving it to the experts in the field of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, Child Health Nursing, and Community Health Nursing. Acceptable reliability and validity have been established in research. The reliability of the tools was checked by using Cronbach's alpha method. Reliability coefficient obtained for mobile phone use and internet addiction was 0.8 and 0.84 respectively. Demographic variables, mobile phone use and internet addiction were analyzed with frequency and percentage. To find the relationship between mobile phone and internet use, Pearson correlation 'r' was computed.

Results

The study findings (presented in Table 1) revealed that out of 114 subjects, most of the subjects 50 (43.9%) belongs to the age group of 19-20 years. Majority 107 (93.9%) of them were females. 47 (41.2%), of the subjects were residing in urban area, most of them 34 (29.8%) had monthly family income of Rs. 5,000-10,000. Majority of the subjects were from nuclear family 100 (87.7%) and they were single siblings (54.4%), most of the subject's fathers were working 57 (50%), majority of them were staying in hostel 98 (86%), and 107 (93.9%) of the subjects had a good mobile network connection, majority of them 96 (84.2%) possessed mobile phone.

Study showed that among 114 subjects, there is no severe and moderate addiction to mobile phone. Two (1.8%) subjects reported of having mild addiction and 112 (98.2%) of them were not addicted to mobile phone use which is shown in Table 2.

Pie diagram represents that there is no severe addiction to internet use, three (2.6%) subjects were moderately addicted, 35 (30.7%) of them were mildly addicted and 76 (66.7%) subjects were not addicted to internet use.

The Spearman's Correlation 'r' showed that there was a significant relationship between mobile phone and internet use (r=0.610, p=0.001) which is shown in Table 3.

Discussion

The present study revealed that among 114 subjects 112 (98.2%) reported of having no mobile phone addiction and 2 (1.8%) with mild addiction to mobile phone use. The study findings are supported by a study conducted by Bianchi and Phillips in Sweden (2009) to assess the information and communication technology affecting young generation among 548 young populations. The result showed that 88.7% reported being average users, 8.4% heavy users and 2.9% is cell phone addicted.⁵

The study also found that among 114 subjects 3(2.6%) reported of having moderate internet addiction behaviour. 35 (30.7%) mild addiction, 76(66.7%) with no internet addiction. A study which supports these study findings, conducted by Kratzer in Florence, Italy to identify the prevalence of internet abuse and the presence of multiple addictions in an adolescent high school population. 5.4% of the students are found to be internet addicted. The study concluded that behavioural addiction is multiple source of disability and they are related to substance abuse.⁶

In this study, the 'r' value (r=0.610, p=< 0.001) showed that there is a positive relationship between use of mobile phone and internet use. These findings are supported by a study conducted by Jose Swapna (2009) to assess the impact of mobile phone and internet use on self-reported behavioural changes among 542 undergraduate students of selected colleges in Udupi district. She found that there was a positive correlation between the use of internet and mobile phone (r=0.442, p<0.05).⁴

The study found that out of 114 subjects, most of the subjects belongs to the age group of 17-18 yeas, majority 50(43.9%) are between 19-20 years of age, 35 (30.7%) subjects are in the age group of 21-22 years and minimum subject belong to 23-24 years of age. Similar findings were found in a study by Mark Hefflingre (2007) in China, which showed that 13% of Chinese internet users are under the age of 18 years. 23% of the internet users are between the age group of 18 - 34 years. 9% of the users are in the age group of 35 - 49 years and only 3% of users are over 50 7 years.

Conclusion

Most of the study subjects, 35 (30.7%) reported of having mild internet addiction and 3 (2.6%) subjects had moderate internet addiction. Nursing professionals need to understand the relevance of mobile phone and internet use in their work place as well as for initiating and maintaining communal effort to prevent the harmful effects of media overuse.

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Fig. 1

Pie Diagram Representing frequency and percentage distribution of internet use

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