Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 9;19(24):16583.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416583.

Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction and Its Association with Sociodemographic, Physical and Mental Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Study among the Young Adults of Bangladesh

Zubair Ahmed Ratan  1   2 , Anne-Maree Parrish  1 , Mohammad Saud Alotaibi  1   3 , Hassan Hosseinzadeh  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction and Its Association with Sociodemographic, Physical and Mental Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Study among the Young Adults of Bangladesh

Zubair Ahmed Ratan et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Smartphones have made our lives easier and have become indispensable for everyday life; however, their uncontrolled and excessive use can trigger "smartphone addiction" (SA). SA is a rising public health issue, particularly among young people around the world. There is a dearth of empirical research about SA and its impacts on young adults, particularly in developing countries such as Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study is an attempt to fill this gap. The data were collected from 440 eligible young adults in Bangladesh using an online survey between July 2021 and February 2022. Study results revealed that 61.4% of the young adults were addicted to their smartphone. Logistic regression analysis showed that being male, aged ≤25, unemployed and living with a large family size (≥8) were the significant sociodemographic predictors of SA. Smartphone-addicted participants were more likely to be less physically active, suffer from insomnia, be overweight or obese and use their phones while driving, walking and eating. In addition, the SA group were more likely to have physical and mental well-being problems. This study brings to light significant implications for policy makers and indicates a need for an SA community awareness programme which aims to reduce SA at the societal level.

Keywords: Bangladesh; physical and mental health; prevalence; smartphone addiction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Alhazmi A.A., Alzahrani S.H., Baig M., Salawati E.M., Alkatheri A. Prevalence and factors associated with smartphone addiction among medical students at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. Pak. J. Med. Sci. 2018;34:984. doi: 10.12669/pjms.344.15294. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Imteaj A., Hossain M.K. A smartphone based application to improve the health care system of Bangladesh; Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Medical Engineering, Health Informatics and Technology (MediTec); Dhaka, Bangladesh. 17–18 December 2016; New York, NY, USA: IEEE; 2016.
    1. Turner A. How Many Smartphones Are In The World? [(accessed on 18 May 2022)]. Available online: https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world.
    1. Deloitte 2017 Global Mobile Consumer Survey: US Edition. [(accessed on 20 October 2021)]. Available online: https://www2.deloitte.com/tr/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunica....
    1. Lee M., Han M., Pak J. Analysis of behavioral characteristics of smartphone addiction using data mining. Appl. Sci. 2018;8:1191. doi: 10.3390/app8071191. - DOI