Evaluation of the relationship between the smartphone addiction levels and depression and anxiety levels in Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Health Sciences Faculty Nursing Department and Medical Faculty Students

Introduction and Objectives: Smartphones that are multifunctional and easy to carry are becoming increasingly prevalent. Although the smartphones are quite useful with their functionalities, they remind the term "addiction" on the minds with their enjoyable features. Behavioral addictions may be associated with other psychiatric problems such as depression and anxiety as well as being a health problem on their own. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between the smartphone addiction levels and depression and anxiety levels in Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Health Sciences Faculty Nursing Department and Medical Faculty students. Material and Method: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. 512 volunteers from Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Health Sciences Faculty Nursing Department and Faculty of Medicine who were aged 18 or over and had no previous psychiatric disease were included in the study. Within the scope of the study, a questionnaire containing questions about sociodemographic data and mobile phone usage characteristics, Smart Phone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS) were administered. In the evaluation of the data, 24.0 version of SPSS program was used. Kruskal-Wallis Analysis, Mann-Whitney U Test, Spearman Correlation Analysis and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used to compare the groups. P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 512 students were included in the study. 75.4% (n = 386) of them were female and 24.6% (n = 126) were male. The average age was 20.45±1.95 years. The youngest student was 18 and the oldest student was 30 years old. Participants were using their mobile phones the most with the aim of tracking social media (77.1%), followed by messaging and talking with the order (75.0%, 66.2%). Participants' mean SAS-SV score was 28.69±10.19 points. Female participants' mean SAS-SV score was significantly higher than males (p=0.004). There were a significant positive relationship between the SAS-SV scores and the use of smartphones for social media, taking pictures and listening to music (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.006). In addition, a significant positive correlation was found between the daily time spent on smartphone usage and the SAS-SV scores (p=0.001). Furthermore, those who defined themselves as addicted to smartphones were found to have a higher SAS-SV score and this relationship was statistically highly significant (p=0.001). There was a statistically highly significant positive correlation between depression and smartphone addiction (p=0.001). There were a statistically highly significant positive weak correlation between SAS-SV scores and BDI scores and BAS scores (p=0.001, r=0.232; p = 0.001, r = 0.209 respectively). In addition, participants who defined themselves as a smartphone addict were also had higher scores of BDI and BAI at a statistically significant level (p=0.001, p=0.006). Conclusion: Although not yet mentioned in DSM V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5) as a disease, smartphone addiction is an important health problem that may be associated with serious problems like depression and anxiety, especially among young people. Although the risk factors are female sex, the intensive usage of mobile phone and using smartphone for the social media, photography and listening music; if the prevalence of smartphones is also considered, the whole community is at risk. Those who defined themselves as a smartphone addict had significantly higher depression and anxiety levels as well as smartphone addiction levels. This finding suggests that even asking the question "Do you consider yourself as a smartphone addict?" that would take only a few seconds may be instrumental in identifying some of the at-risk populations and early intervention in terms of these problems. There is a need for extensive and comprehensive work to clarify definitions and diagnostic criteria for smartphone addiction.