A study to evaluate mobile phone dependence among students of a medical college and associated hospital of central India

Abstract

Nomophobia(1) literally means no mobile phobia that is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. If a person is in an area of no network, has run out of balance or even worse run out of battery, the persons gets anxious, which adversely affects the concentration level of the person. In recent times there seems to have been a transformation of the cell phone from a status symbol to a necessity because of the countless perks that a mobile phone provides like personal diary, email dispatcher, calculator, video game player, camera and music player.(2) Indian market has emerged as the second-largest market after China for mobile phone handsets. Our study was undertaken to find out the prevalence of nomophobia in the Indian scenario considering the tremendous increase in the number of mobile phone users in the past decade. We decided to conduct the study in our college since the younger generation is the latest consumer of the mobile phones, and the under 25 year age group in professional colleges like medical colleges use mobile phones quite frequently since most of them reside in hostels. Day scholar students too want to be in constant touch with their family members and friends since they are out of their homes for the whole day and at nights while studying in colleges and working in hospitals.