Relationship between problematic smartphone use, eating disorders and social anxiety among university students

Introduction and Aim: Problematic smartphone use is defined as an individual's failure to restrict his/her smartphone use despite its adverse effects. Problematic smartphone use is common among the young including university students, in particular, and may be accompanied by social anxiety and eating disorders. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between problematic smartphone use and social anxiety and eating disorders among university students. Materials and Method: The population of this cross-sectional study comprised 28,669 students from İnönü University. The sample size was calculated as 308 participants at a confidence interval of 95% and a statistical power of 80%, considering that the amount of problematic mobile phone use in the reference study was 28.2%. The questionnaire form used in the study included the sociodemographic characteristics of students, data concerning their smartphone use, the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Eating Attitudes Test. For statistical analysis, the chi-squared test, the Student's t-test, one-way ANOVA, Mann−Whitney U test, Kruskal−Wallis one-way analysis of variance, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and binomial logistic regression analysis were used. Results: The rate of problematic smartphone use, social anxiety and eating behaviour disorder were 46.1%, 48.3% and 14.7%, respectively, among the students in the study. No significant correlation was found between age, gender, faculty, income level, the educational background of parents and alcohol consumption and problematic smartphone use (p > 0.05). Cigarette use and smartphone use duration were significantly correlated to the total score on the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The rate of problematic mobile phone use is high among university students, and the total scores on the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale increase as the duration of smartphone use increases. Students should be informed through training sessions to minimise problematic smartphone use.