IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v13y2023i3p21582440231194463.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smartphone Use Among Resident Physicians: Prevalence and Risk Factors in Clinical Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Costa
  • Michele Teodoro
  • Manuela Coco
  • Francesca Verduci
  • Federica Giambò
  • Sebastiano Italia
  • Angela Alibrandi
  • Concettina Fenga

Abstract

Personal mobile phone has become an integral part of our lives. In the medical field, the growing popularity of medicine applications allows more rapid communication among healthcare professionals and quick access to helpful information, which facilitates and improves patient care practice. The use of smartphones during work activities by healthcare professionals can cause a lack of attention and errors while carrying out health procedures. The result might be an increased threat endangering the safety of patients. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the level of nomophobia (a psychological condition regarded as a fear of being detached from mobile phone connectivity) and its correlations with the use of smartphones in clinical practice, distraction due to personal use and policies regarding mobile phones use in a sample of resident doctors of a University of Southern Italy. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 204 hospital residents divided into three areas depending on their duties: clinical, surgical, and services. Two tools were used: nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q) and a composite questionnaire investigating smartphone use in the specific healthcare setting. Sixty percent of participants were affected by a moderate level of nomophobia and 10% by a severe degree, jeopardizing both the work and social relationships of young doctors. Smartphone use can certainly represent a helpful support tool for clinical practice; consequently, we believe it would be appropriate to find instruments to screen smartphone dependence or compulsive use to further prevent, early diagnose or treat this detrimental disorder for health professionals.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Costa & Michele Teodoro & Manuela Coco & Francesca Verduci & Federica Giambò & Sebastiano Italia & Angela Alibrandi & Concettina Fenga, 2023. "Smartphone Use Among Resident Physicians: Prevalence and Risk Factors in Clinical Practice," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:21582440231194463
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440231194463
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231194463
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440231194463?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonio-Manuel Rodríguez-García & Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero & Jesús López Belmonte, 2020. "Nomophobia: An Individual’s Growing Fear of Being without a Smartphone—A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. José-María Romero-Rodríguez & Inmaculada Aznar-Díaz & José-Antonio Marín-Marín & Rebeca Soler-Costa & Carmen Rodríguez-Jiménez, 2020. "Impact of Problematic Smartphone Use and Instagram Use Intensity on Self-Esteem with University Students from Physical Education," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-10, June.
    2. Elissavet Vagka & Charalambos Gnardellis & Areti Lagiou & Venetia Notara, 2023. "Nomophobia and Self-Esteem: A Cross Sectional Study in Greek University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-11, February.
    3. Antonio-Manuel Rodríguez-García & José-Antonio Marín-Marín & Juan-Antonio López-Núñez & Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero, 2021. "Do Age and Educational Stage Influence No-Mobile-Phone Phobia?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-11, April.
    4. Haitham Jahrami & Ammar Abdelaziz & Latifa Binsanad & Omar A. Alhaj & Mohammed Buheji & Nicola Luigi Bragazzi & Zahra Saif & Ahmed S. BaHammam & Michael V. Vitiello, 2021. "The Association between Symptoms of Nomophobia, Insomnia and Food Addiction among Young Adults: Findings of an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-11, January.
    5. Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero & Inmaculada Aznar-Díaz & Pilar Cáceres-Reche & Antonio-Manuel Rodríguez-García, 2020. "Do Age, Gender and Poor Diet Influence the Higher Prevalence of Nomophobia among Young People?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-13, May.
    6. Jéssica Ortega-Barón & Joaquín González-Cabrera & Juan M. Machimbarrena & Irene Montiel, 2021. "Safety.Net: A Pilot Study on a Multi-Risk Internet Prevention Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-14, April.
    7. Kamil Kopecký & Francisco-Domingo Fernández-Martín & René Szotkowski & Gerardo Gómez-García & Klára Mikulcová, 2021. "Behaviour of Children and Adolescents and the Use of Mobile Phones in Primary Schools in the Czech Republic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Rebeca Soler-Costa & Pablo Lafarga-Ostáriz & Marta Mauri-Medrano & Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero, 2021. "Netiquette: Ethic, Education, and Behavior on Internet—A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Danilo B. Buctot & Nami Kim & Sun-Hee Kim, 2021. "Personal Profiles, Family Environment, Patterns of Smartphone Use, Nomophobia, and Smartphone Addiction across Low, Average, and High Perceived Academic Performance Levels among High School Students i," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Fareed Kaviani & Brady Robards & Kristie L. Young & Sjaan Koppel, 2020. "Nomophobia: Is the Fear of Being without a Smartphone Associated with Problematic Use?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-19, August.
    11. Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero & Gerardo Gómez-García & Jesús López-Belmonte & Carmen Rodríguez-Jiménez, 2020. "Internet Addiction in the Web of Science Database: A Review of the Literature with Scientific Mapping," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:21582440231194463. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.