Pattern of Smart Phone and Internet Usage among Medical Students in Surat, Gujarat – A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Advent of mobile and internet has been most important
technological advancement of the century. About 60 percent
of internet users in India access internet via their smart phones.
Objective: To study the pattern of smart phone, internet usage, its
perception and addiction among medical students.
Methods: Cross-sectional study, conducted among medical students
of Government Medical College, Surat. A semi-structured
proforma along with Young's Internet Addiction scale was used.
Results: Of 313 participants, 51.4% were male & 48.6% were female.
Majority of them were using smart phone. Majority were using
internet on smart phone. Social networking (65.2 %) was the
most common purpose, 53.7 % using internet for 1 to 3 hours
daily. About (48.6 %) felt addicted to internet.Porn was watched
by 34.8 % on mobile; while 11.2 % feels addicted to watching porn
material. According to Young’s Internet Addiction scale, 59.1 %
average online users, 23.3 % less than average online users, 17.3 %
possible addict and 0.3 % addicted to internet.
Conclusion: Although some participants were using smartphone
for academic literature search, majority were using it for social
networking. About half of the participants felt addicted to internet.
Key words: Internet addiction, medical student, smart phone.

Full text

National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 7│Jul 2018 Page 469
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816
Open Access Article
www.njcmindia.org
Pattern of Smart Phone and Internet Usage among Medical
Students in Surat, Gujarat – A Cross Sectional Study
Rahul B Damor1, Sukesha P Gamit1, Anjali Modi1, Jayant Patel2, Jayesh Kosambiya3
Financial Support: None declared
Conflict of Interest: None declared
Copy Right: The Journal retains the
copyrights of this article. However, re-
production is permissible with due ac-
knowledgement of the source.
How to cite this article:
Damor RB, Gamit SP, Modi A, Patel J,
Kosambiya J. Pattern of Smart Phone
and Internet Usage among Medical
Students in Surat, Gujarat – A Cross
Sectional Study. Natl J Community
Med 2018;9(7):469-473
Author’s Affiliation:
1Asst Prof; 2Tutor; 3Prof & Head, Dept.
of Community Medicine, Govt. Medi-
cal College, Surat
Correspondence
Gamit Sukesha P
sukeshagamit@yahoo.com
Date of Submission: 24-06-17
Date of Acceptance: 12-07-18
Date of Publication: 31-07-18
ABSTRACT
Background: Advent of mobile and internet has been most impor-
tant technological advancement of the century. About 60 percent
of internet users in India access internet via their smart phones.
Objective: To study the pattern of smart phone, internet usage, its
perception and addiction among medical students.
Methods: Cross-sectional study, conducted among medical stu-
dents of Government Medical College, Surat. A semi-structured
proforma along with Young's Internet Addiction scale was used.
Results: Of 313 participants, 51.4% were male & 48.6% were fe-
male. Majority of them were using smart phone. Majority were us-
ing internet on smart phone. Social networking (65.2 %) was the
most common purpose, 53.7 % using internet for 1 to 3 hours
daily. About (48.6 %) felt addicted to internet.Porn was watched
by 34.8 % on mobile; while 11.2 % feels addicted to watching porn
material. According to Young’s Internet Addiction scale, 59.1 %
average online users, 23.3 % less than average online users, 17.3 %
possible addict and 0.3 % addicted to internet.
Conclusion: Although some participants were using smartphone
for academic literature search, majority were using it for social
networking. About half of the participants felt addicted to internet.
Key words: Internet addiction, medical student, smart phone.
INTRODUCTION
One of the important technological advancement
in the last few decades has been the advent of
mobile.1 Mobile phone, particularly internet
enabled smart phones holds a great importance in
todays world. A study by Kung (2012) shows that
66% of mobile phone users suffer from ‘nomopho-
bia’: severe anxiety and panic due to being without
a mobile phone. Since the introduction of Apple’s
iPhone in 2007, mobile phones are being gradually
replaced by smartphones.2Globally, there were
about 3.53 billion mobile internet users by April
2017.3The number of mobile internet users in India
has reached 371 million by June 2016, and is on
track to cross 500 million users by next year.4
Mobile phone and internet usage have become
universal practice especially among college
students. College students are unique population,
occupying middle ground between childhood &
adulthood, between work and leisure.5
Use of internet is a part of college students daily
routine. It is integrated in to their daily
communication habit. College students use
internet nearly as much for social communication
as they do for their education.6 Mobile phone
usage has both pros and cons.1 Medical students
need to study throughout their MBBS syllabus for
longer hours compared to other streams. On one
hand, availability of smartphones very easily can
hamper their concentration and learning process.
But on the other hand, availability of e-text books,
powerpoints of their study materials by
smartphone also help a lot in study.7 In addition,
its usage has also become an important public
health problem as there have been reports of

Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816
National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 7│Jul 2018 Page 470
plenty of health hazards, both physical and mental,
in people of all age groups.1There is lack of studies
on medical students about the pattern of
smartphone use. So our study will look into the
matter and will evaluate the pattern of smartphone
and internet usage among medical students.
OBJECTIVES
This research was conducted to study the pattern
of smart phone, internet usage, its perception and
addiction among medical students of Government
Medical College, Surat
POPULATION AND METHODS
A present cross-sectional study was carried out in
Government Medical College, Surat, to assess the
pattern of smart phone and internet usage. The
study population consisted of 313 medical stu-
dents. Data was collected using semi-structured
questionnaire. Prior to administering the question-
naire, verbal informed consent was obtained from
the students. Students were addressed regarding
the purpose of study and the way of filling ques-
tionnaire. Questionnaire was anonymous to in-
crease the participation and reduce the respondent
bias. Questionnaire elicited information about
demographic profile of students and pattern of
smart phone and internet usage. Variables studied
were, type and cost of smart phone, time and
money spent on internet use, purpose of mobile
internet use and its effect on their studies. Young's
Internet Addiction scale, a likert based scale was
used to find out prevalence of internet addiction
among medical students. Internet Addiction Test
(IAT) is a reliable and valid measure of addictive
use of Internet, developed by Dr. Kimberly Young.
It consists of 20 items that measures mild, moder-
ate, and severe level of Internet Addiction.8 Data
were entered in MS Office Excel 2007 and analysed
using SPSS version 20.
RESULTS
Demographic profile: In present study, among 313
medical students, 51.4 % were boys and 48.6 %
were girls. About 45.4 % of the participants were of
age below 18 years, 30. 7 % were in the age group
of 18-20 years, 23.6 % were in the age group of 21-
23 years and only one (0.3 %) participant was of
age more than 23 years. According the year of
study, 29.7 %, 35.8 % and 34.5 % students were
studying in the first, second and third year, respec-
tively. [Table 1]
Pattern of smart phone usage: About 99.7 % of the
study participants were using smart phone; major-
ity of study participants (28.3 %) were using Sam-
sung brand, followed by Sony (12.5 %); about 8 %
of the study participants were using Apple I
phone. [Table 2]
Table 1: Demographic profile of study partici-
pants
Characteristics Frequency (n=313) (%)
Age
Less than 18 142 (45.4)
18-20 96 (30.7)
21-23 74 (23.6)
More than 23 1 (0.3)
Gender
Male 161 (51.4)
Female 152 (48.6)
Year of study
First 93 (29.7)
Second 112 (35.8)
Third 108 (34.5)
Table 2: Distribution of study participants ac-
cording to brand of smart phone
Brand of smart phone Frequency (n=313) (%)
Sony 39 (12.5)
Samsung 89 (28.4)
Nokia 15 (4.8)
Motorola 17 (5.4)
LG 10 (3.2)
Lenovo 13 (4.2)
Apple I Phone 25 (8)
Micromax 19 (6.1)
Others 85 (27.1)
Nil 1 (0.3)
Table 3: Pattern of internet usage among study
participants (n=313)
Characteristics Frequency (%)
Use of internet on mobile device
Yes 307 (98.1)
No 6 (1.9)
Most common purpose of using internet
Academic literature search 61 (19.4)
Social media sites 204 (65.2)
Gaming 18 (5.8)
Watching online movies and songs 26 (8.3)
Not answered 4 (1.3)
Time spent on internet usage daily
Less than 1 hour 80 (25.6)
1 to 3 hour 168 (53.6)
4 to 6 hour 41 (13.1)
7 to 9 hours 10 (3.2)
More than 10 hours 10 (3.2)
Not answered 4 (1.3)
Money spent on mobile internet usage monthly
<200 156 (49.8)
200-500 120 (38.4)
501-1000 23 (7.3)
>1000 4 (1.3)
Not answered 10 (3.2)

Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816
National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 7│Jul 2018 Page 471
Table 4: Perception about internet usage among
study participants
Perception about
internet usage
Boys
(n=161)(%)
Girls
(n=152)(%)
Total
(n=313)(%)
Feel addicted to internet
Yes 74 (45.9) 78 (51.3) 152 (48.5)
No 87 (54.1) 74 (48.7) 161 (51.5)
Impaired academic performance
Yes 70 (43.4) 61 (40.1) 131 (41.8)
No 91 (56.6) 91 (59.9) 182 (58.2)
Improved academic gain
Yes 130 (80.7) 110 (72.3) 240 (76.6)
No 31 (19.26) 42 (27.7) 73 (23.4)
Table 5: Behaviour of students about porn mate-
rial
Characteristics Boys
(n=161)(%)
Girls
(n=152)(%)
Total
(n=313)(%)
Watch porn materials on mobile
Yes 101 (62.7) 8 (5.2) 109 (34.9)
No 60 (37.3) 144 (94.8) 204 (65.1)
Addicted to porn watching
Yes 35 (21.7) 0 (0.00) 35 (11.2)
No 126 (78.3) 152 (100) 278 (88.8)
Porn affect study
Yes 20 (12.4) 3 (1.9) 23 (7.3)
No 141 (87.6) 149 (98.1) 290 (92.7)
Table 6: Young’s internet addiction scale
Scale Boys
(n=161)
Girls
(n=152)
Total
(n=313)
Less than average users
Average online users
Possible addict
Addict
23 (14.3)
97 (60.2)
41 (25.5)
0 (0.0)
50 (32.9)
88 (57.9)
13 (8.7)
1 (0.5)
73 (23.4)
185 (59.1)
54 (17.2)
1 (0.3)
Figure in parenthesis indicate percentage.
Regarding cost of smart phone, about half of the
participants (49.2 %) were using smart phone cost-
ing between 5000 to 15000 rupees; about one fourth
(27.5 %) of participants were using smart phone
costing from 16000 to 25000 rupees. Only 5.8 %
were using smart phone costing more than 51000
rupees.
Pattern of Internet Usage: About 98.1 % of study
participants were using internet on their smart
phone. Majority (65.2 %) students used internet for
social networking while 5.8 % played online games
and 8.3 % watched online movies and songs. Only
19.5 % mentioned academic literature search as
main purpose of internet use on mobile phones.
[Table 3]
Time and money spent on internet: About half
(53.6 %) of the participants used internet daily for
1-3 hours and about 20 % of the participants used
internet for more than 3 hours. Near about 40 % of
the participants spent 200 – 500 rupees monthly for
internet use on their smart phone. [Table 3]
Perception about internet usage: About 45.9 % of
the boys and 51.3 % of the girls felt addicted to
internet; about 43.4 % of the boys and 40.1 % of the
girls perceived that usage of internet impairs their
academic performance; about 80.7 % of the boys
and 72.3 % of the girls felt that usage of internet
has improved their academic gain. [Table 4]
Porn watching and addiction: About 62.7 % of the
boys and 5.2 % of the girls watched porn material
on their mobile. 21.7 % boys were addicted to
watch porn material on their mobile. About 12.4 %
boys and 1.9 % girls stated that watching porn af-
fects their study. [Table 5]
Young’s Internet addiction scale: According to
Young’s Internet addiction scale, users were di-
vided into four groups: 59.1 % as average users,
17.1 % as possible addicts, 0.3 % as addicts, and in
23.5 % of medical students’ internet usage was less
than average user. [Table 6]
DISCUSSION
A number of studies have been conducted across
the world, especially among adolescents with re-
spect to internet addiction. Our study was a pre-
liminary step toward understanding the pattern of
smart phones and internet usage among medical
college students studying in Government Medical
College, Surat.
Demographic characteristics
In our study, about 51.4 % participants were boys
and 48.6 % participants were girls. In the study of
Unnikrishnan B et al (2008), carried out among
medical students in Coastal South India, 56 % par-
ticipants were boys and 44 % participants were
girls.6 In contrast, in the study of Srijampana et al
(2014), carried out in two different medical colleges
of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, female participants
were more (57.2 %) as compared to male (42.8 %).9
In the current study, majority of participants (99.7
%) were of age less than 23 years, only 0.3 % par-
ticipants were of age more than 23 years. In the
study of Unnikrishnan B et al, 84.8 % of study par-
ticipants were of age less than 24 years and about
15.2 % participants were of age more than 24
years.6 Probable reason for the difference in the
socio-demographic characteristics in this study and
other studies might be the difference in the study
setting.
Pattern of Smart Phone Usage
In this study, 99.7 % participants were using smart
phones; with majority of using Samsung brand
(28.3 %), followed by Sony (12.5 %), Nokia (4.8 %);
and few participants were using Apple I phone (8
%). In the study of Dhara Prajapati et al (2014),

Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816
National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 7│Jul 2018 Page 472
among medical students in Ahmedabad, majority
of participants were using Samsung brand (45.45
%), followed by Nokia (18.48 %), Micromax (9.39
%), Sony (5.15 %); about 8.48 % participants were
using Apple I phone.1 In the study of Nasiru A
Ibrahim et al (2014), among medical students in
Sub Sahara Africa, majority of participants (58.5 %)
were using smart phone of Blackberry brand, fol-
lowed by Nokia (21.1 %), Samsung (3.3 %); 5.5 %
participants using Apple I phone.10
Regarding cost of smart phone, about half of the
participants (49.2 %) were using smart phone cost-
ing from 5000 to 15000 rupees; about one fourth
(27.5 %) of participants were using smart phone
costing from 16000 to 25000 rupees. About 5.8 %
were using smart phone costing more than 51000
rupees. Similarly, in the study of Dhara Prajapati et
al, about 60 % of the participants were using smart
phone costing between 5000 to 20,000 rupees and
about 15 % participants using smart phone costing
more than 30, 000 rupees.1Reason for similar find-
ing in this study and in the study ofDhara Praja-
pati et al might be the similarity in the study set-
ting, as both the studies have been carried out
among the medical students of different Govern-
ment Medical Colleges of Gujarat.
Pattern of Internet Usage
In this study, 98.1 % participants were using inter-
net on their smart phones. Similarly, in the study
conducted by Aggrawal Sumit et al (2015) among
medical students at Government Medical College,
Akola, 97.02 % participants were using internet en-
abled mobile and 94 % participant were using
internet on their mobile phones.5
Regarding most common purpose of using internet
in current study, 65.2 % participants mentioned so-
cial networking, about 19.5 % have mentioned
academic literature search, 8.3 % were watching
online movies & songs and 5.8 % were mentioned
playing online games. In the study of Aggrawal
Sumit et al, 81.55 % participants accessed social
sites, 76.79 % participants’ accessed academic lit-
erature and 13.10 % participants accessed porno-
graphic material on internet.5 In the study of Ab-
hishek Ghosh et al (2016), carried out among medi-
cal students of College of Medicine & JNM Hospi-
tal, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, 124 students
(51.02%) responded Social networking as their
most frequent activity. 35 students (14.4%) used
smart phone mostly for gaming, listening songs
was most favorite activity for 53 students (21.81%).
4 students (1.64%) liked to watch and download
videos most. 27 students (11.11%) mostly used
their phones for academic purpose and eBook
reading.7
Time and money spent on internet:
In this study, about quarter of participants (25.6 %)
spent less than one hour daily, about half of the
participants (53.6 %) spent one to three hours daily,
and about 20 % participants spent more than three
hours daily on internet usage. Similarly, in the
study of Aggrawal Sumit et al, about 20 % of par-
ticipants spent less than one hour daily, about 60 %
participants spent one to four hours daily and
about 20 % participants spent more than four
hours daily on internet usage.5 In this study, about
8.6 % of the participants were spending more than
500 rupees on mobile phone internet usage while
in the study of Dhara Prajapati et al, about 23.6 %
participants spending more than 500 rupees on
internet usage.1
Perception about internet usage:
Usage of internet enabled smart phone among stu-
dents may cause both positive as well as negative
impact among students depending upon the usage
of smart phone.In this study, about 45.9 % of the
boys and 51.3 % of the girls felt addicted to inter-
net; about 43.4 % of the boys and 40.1 % of the girls
perceived usage of internet impaired their aca-
demic performance and about 80.7 % of the boys
and 72.3 % of the girls felt usage of internet has
improved their academic gain. In the study of Ab-
hishek Ghosh et al, about 19.75 % students re-
ported improved performance, 35.81 % reported
deteriorating performance while 44.44 % reported
usage of internet and smart phone doesn’t have
any effect on academic performance.7 In contrast,
in the study of Arwa Jamal et al, carried out among
female medical students at Taibah University,
Madinah, Saudi Arabia, about 13.3 % of the par-
ticipants reported that internet enabled smart
phone impaired their academic performance.11
Behaviour about porn watching:
Availability of internet on mobile phones gives
opportunity to search different social media sites
as well as pornographic sites. Sometimes, students
may not have control in watching porn sites due to
easy availability. This kind of behaviour may ulti-
mately affect their academic performance. About
62.7 % boys and 5.2 % girls watched pornographic
material on their mobile, about 21.7 % boys felt
addicted to watch pornographic material. About
12.4 % boys and 1.9 % girls’ felt that watching por-
nographic material affect their academic perform-
ance. In contrast to this study, about 29.33 % males
whereas no female accessed pornographic material
in the study of Agrawal Sumitet al.5
Young’s Internet addiction scale:
In our study, according to Young’s Internet addic-
tion scale, , 59.1 % as average users, 17.1 % as pos-
sible addicts, 0.3 % as addicts, and in 23.5 % of
medical students’ internet usage was less than av-

Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816
National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 7│Jul 2018 Page 473
erage user. In the study of Srijampana et al, 23.2 %
participants were less than average online users,
64.4 % were average online users, 11.8 % were pos-
sible addicts, and in 0.4 % of medical students were
addicts.9 In our study prevalence of internet addic-
tion was 0.3 % which was in accordance with the
studies done by Srijampana et al 9, Goel et al 12 and
Xie et al 13. In contrast to our results, a study done
by Ghamari et al 14, among Iranian medical stu-
dents, shown the overall prevalence of internet ad-
diction was 10.8% and similar findings were ob-
served in the study done by Siomos e t al 15, on
Greek adolescent students, where the prevalence
rate was 8.2%.
CONCLUSION
Although some participants used smart phone for
academic literature search, majority of them used it
for social networking. Availability of high speed
internet on mobile phones may be the reason for
spending more time on social network websites.
More than half of the boys and few girls watched
porn material on their smart phones. About one
fifth of the boys felt themselves addicted to inter-
net.
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