Vol. 16 No. 1 (2025)
Original Articles

Screen-time and Associated Factors among MBBS Students of a Government Medical College of Northeast India: A Cross-sectional Study

  • Sannibesh Das,
  • Himadri Bhattacharjya,
  • Dwaipayan Datta,
  • Rathindra Das
Sannibesh Das
Postgraduate Student, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Government Medical College, Agartala, Tripura, India
Himadri Bhattacharjya
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Government Medical College, Agartala, Tripura, India
Dwaipayan Datta
Postgraduate Student, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Government Medical College, Agartala, Tripura, India
Rathindra Das
Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Agartala Government Medical College, Agartala, Tripura, India
Categories

Published 31-03-2025

Keywords

  • Health problem,
  • MBBS students,
  • Screen-time

Copyright (c) 2025 Sannibesh Das, Himadri Bhattacharjya, Dwaipayan Datta, Rathindra Das (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

1.
Das S, Bhattacharjya H, Datta D, Das R. Screen-time and Associated Factors among MBBS Students of a Government Medical College of Northeast India: A Cross-sectional Study. Healthline. 2025;16(1):59-66. doi:10.51957/Healthline_699_2025

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals now-a-days spend considerable time for viewing at LCD or LED screens of electronic gadgets. Such prolonged viewing may affect their health adversely. Objective: To estimate the proportion of high screen-time among MBBS students of a Government Medical College of Northeast India and to determine its association with their self-reported health problems and socio-demographic factors. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted during August and September 2024, using a self-administered and validated questionnaire in a calculated sample of 254 MBBS students of a Government Medical College, chosen by stratified random sampling. High screen-time was defined as spending more than 2 hours per day by a person for viewing an active LCD or LED screen. Chi-square test was used to test the significance of difference between two or more proportions and logistic regression analysis was also used. Results: Proportion of high screen-time was found to be 96.1% (244). Among all, 96.4% of the male, 96.7% of the urban, 98.3% of the hosteller, 97.5% of the students from nuclear families and all of the third year MBBS students had high screen-time. Except the type of family, proportion of high screen-time did not differ significantly across different groups of students. Logistic regression analysis has identified 'studying online' rd (AOR: 1.984, 95% CI: 1.565–2.342) and 'studying in 3 year' [AOR: 1.756, 95% CI: 1.014–1.671) as the significant determinants of screen-time (p<0.05). No significant association was detected between screen-time and self reported health problems of the respondents. Conclusion: Majority of the MBBS students have high screen-time but rd it had no significant association with their self-reported health problems. Studying online' and 'studying in 3 year' were found to be significant determinants of high screen-time.

References

  1. 1. Definition of screen time. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/screen %20time. Accessed: 4th May 2024.
  2. 2. Goswami V, Singh DR. Impact of mobile phone addiction on adolescent’s life: A literature review. Int J Home Sci 2016; 2:69 74.
  3. 3. Rideout VJ, Foehr UG, Roberts DF. Generation M2 media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds: A Kaiser Family Foundation Study 2010; Page: 11. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED527859.pdf. Accessed: 6th December 2024.
  4. 4. Choi JH, Li Y, Kim SH, Jin R, Kim YH, Choi W, et al. The influences of smartphone use on the status of the tear film and ocular surface. PloS One. 2018;13: e0206541.
  5. 5. Zhuang L, Wang L, Xu D, Wang Z, Liang R. Association between excessive smartphone use and cervical disc degeneration in young patients suffering from chronic neck pain. J Orthop Sci 2021; 26(1):110-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jos.2020.02.009.
  6. 6. Marsh S, Ni Mhurchu C, Maddison R. The non-advertising effects of screen-based sedentary activities on acute eating behaviours in children, adolescents, and young adults. A systematic review. Appetite 2013; 71:259 73.
  7. 7. Acharya JP, Acharya I, Waghrey D. A study on some of the common health effects of cell-phones amongst college students. J Community Med Health Educ. 2013; 3:1–4.
  8. 8. Quencer RM, Sheldon JJ, Post MJD. Magnetic resonance imaging of the chronically injured cervical spinal cord. Am J Neuroradiol 1986; 7:457– 64.
  9. 9. Alavi SS, Ghanizadeh M, Farahani M, Jannatifard F, Esmaili AS, Mohammadi MR. Addictive use of smartphones and mental disorders in university students. Iran J Psychiatry 2020; 15(2): 96-04.
  10. 10. Rathi NB, Roy S, Dutta S. Screen time guidelines for parents. Indian Academy of Pediatrics. Available at: https://iapindia.org/pdf/Screentime-Guidelines-for-Parents-Ch-005.pdf Accessed: 4th May 2024.
  11. 11. Stiglic N, Viner RM. Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: a systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open. 2019 Jan 3;9(1):e023191. doi: 10.1136/
  12. 12. Eng J. Sample Size Estimation: How Many Individuals Should Be Studied? Radiology 2003; 227(2): 309–313.
  13. 13. Malhotra S, Kant S, Rath R, Ahamed F, Sathiyamoorthy R, Gupta SK. Excess screen time and its associated factors among young men in a rural community of North India. Indian J Public Health 2022; 66:327-30.
  14. 14. IBM Corp. Released 2023. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 29.0.2.0 Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
  15. 15. Vishwakarma S, Sakalle S, Mahawar P, Gharia A, Dixit S, A cross-sectional study to assess awareness regarding excessive screen-time and its adverse effects on social, mental and physical health among undergraduate medical students of MGM Medical College in Indore district. Porwal P. International Journal of Medicine and Public Health 2023; 13(4): 127 -31.
  16. 16. Lucena JM, Cheng LA, Cavalcante TL, Silva VA, Farias JC. Prevalence of excessive screen time and associated factors in adolescents. Rev Paul Pediatr 2015; 33(4):407-14.
  17. 17. Khan A, Burton NW. Screen-based behaviors of adolescents in Bangladesh. J Phys Act Health 2016; 13(11):1156-63.
  18. 18. Nair AK, Jayan AJ, Santhosh MM, Lalichen LM, Santhosh A, Indu PS. High screen-time and associated factors among high-school students in an urban setting of Kerala: A cross-sectional study. Int J Community Med Public Health 2022; 9(2):767-71.
  19. 19. Leblanc AG, Katzmarzyk PT, Barreira TV, Broyles ST, Chaput J-P, Church TS, et al. Correlates of total sedentary time and screen-time in 9–11-year-old children around the world: The international study of childhood obesity, lifestyle and the environment. PLoS ONE 2015;10(6): 1-20.
  20. 20. Dubey M, Nongkynrih B, Gupta SK, Kalaivani M, Goswami AK, Salve HR. Screen-based media use and screen time assessment among adolescents residing in an urban resettlement colony in New Delhi, India. J Family Med Prim Care 2018; 7(6):1236-42.
  21. 21. Agrawal A, Dixit A, Agarwal V. To study the prevalence and practices of screen-based media exposure in children 2-5 years of age in Ghaziabad - an observational study. Journal of pharmaceutical negative results 2022; 13(7): 811 – 16.
  22. 22. Roomi MA, Srivastava A, Girdhar N, Jha C, Thakur S. A study of the correlation between screen-time and hypertension among young adults in north India: A cross-sectional analysis. Cureus 2024; 16(1): 1 – 8.
  23. 23. Wang H, Zhong J, Hu R, Fiona B, Yu M, Du H. Prevalence of high screen time and associated factors among students: a cross-sectional study in Zhejiang, China. BMJ Open 2018;8: e021493. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021493.
  24. 24. Maurya C, Muhammad T, Maurya P, Dhillon P. The association of smartphone screen-time with sleep problems among adolescents and young adults: cross-sectional findings from India. BMC Public Health 2022; 22:1686.
  25. 25. Wang X, Li Y, Fan H. The associations between screen-time based sedentary behaviour and depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health 2019; 19:1524.
  26. 26. Smith L, Jacob L, Trott M, Yakkundic A, Butlerd L, Barnett Y, et al. The association between screen time and mental health during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study. Psychiatry Research 2020; 292. 113333.
  27. 27. Issa LF, Alqurashi KA, Althomali TA, Alzahrani TA, Aljuaid AS, Alharthi TM. Smartphone use and its impact on ocular health among university students in Saudi Arabia. Int J Prev Med 2021;12(1):149