Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults - a prospective cohort study

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Abstract

Background

Because of the quick development and widespread use of mobile phones, and their vast effect on communication and interactions, it is important to study possible negative health effects of mobile phone exposure. The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether there are associations between psychosocial aspects of mobile phone use and mental health symptoms in a prospective cohort of young adults.

Methods

The study group consisted of young adults 20-24 years old (n = 4156), who responded to a questionnaire at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Mobile phone exposure variables included frequency of use, but also more qualitative variables: demands on availability, perceived stressfulness of accessibility, being awakened at night by the mobile phone, and personal overuse of the mobile phone. Mental health outcomes included current stress, sleep disorders, and symptoms of depression. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated for cross-sectional and prospective associations between exposure variables and mental health outcomes for men and women separately.

Results

There were cross-sectional associations between high compared to low mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression for the men and women. When excluding respondents reporting mental health symptoms at baseline, high mobile phone use was associated with sleep disturbances and symptoms of depression for the men and symptoms of depression for the women at 1-year follow-up. All qualitative variables had cross-sectional associations with mental health outcomes. In prospective analysis, overuse was associated with stress and sleep disturbances for women, and high accessibility stress was associated with stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression for both men and women.

Conclusions

High frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for mental health outcomes at 1-year follow-up among the young adults. The risk for reporting mental health symptoms at follow-up was greatest among those who had perceived accessibility via mobile phones to be stressful. Public health prevention strategies focusing on attitudes could include information and advice, helping young adults to set limits for their own and others' accessibility.

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Most cited references 26

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Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use.

Adriana Bianchi, James G. Phillips (2005)

Mobile phone use is banned or illegal under certain circumstances and in some jurisdictions. Nevertheless, some people still use their mobile phones despite recognized safety concerns, legislation, and informal bans. Drawing potential predictors from the addiction literature, this study sought to predict usage and, specifically, problematic mobile phone use from extraversion, self-esteem, neuroticism, gender, and age. To measure problem use, the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale was devised and validated as a reliable self-report instrument, against the Addiction Potential Scale and overall mobile phone usage levels. Problem use was a function of age, extraversion, and low self-esteem, but not neuroticism. As extraverts are more likely to take risks, and young drivers feature prominently in automobile accidents, this study supports community concerns about mobile phone use, and identifies groups that should be targeted in any intervention campaigns.

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Case-finding instruments for depression. Two questions are as good as many.

M A Whooley, A Avins, J. Miranda … (1997)

To determine the validity of a two-question case-finding instrument for depression as compared with six previously validated instruments. The test characteristics of a two-question case-finding instrument that asks about depressed mood and anhedonia were compared with six common case-finding instruments, using the Quick Diagnostic Interview Schedule as a criterion standard for the diagnosis of major depression. Urgent care clinic at the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Five hundred thirty-six consecutive adult patients without mania or schizophrenia. Measurements were two questions from the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders patient questionnaire, both the long and short forms of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, both the long and short forms of the Book Depression Inventory, the Symptom-Driven Diagnostic System for Primary Care, the Medical Outcomes Study depression measure, and the Quick Diagnostic Interview Schedule. The prevalence of depression, as determined by the standardized interview, was 18% (97 of 536). Overall, the case-finding instruments had sensitivities of 89% to 96% and specificities of 51% to 72% for diagnosing major depression. A positive response to the two-item instrument had a sensitivity of 96% (95% confidence interval [CI], 90-99%) and a specificity of 57% (95% CI 53-62%). Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were similar for all of the instruments, with a range of 0.82 to 0.89. The two-question case-finding instrument is a useful measure for detecting depression in primary care. It has similar test characteristics to other case-finding instruments and is less time-consuming.

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Symptoms of problematic cellular phone use, functional impairment and its association with depression among adolescents in Southern Taiwan.

Cheng-Fang Yen, Tze-Chun Tang, Ju-Yu Yen … (2009)

The aims of this study were: (1) to examine the prevalence of symptoms of problematic cellular phone use (CPU); (2) to examine the associations between the symptoms of problematic CPU, functional impairment caused by CPU and the characteristics of CPU; (3) to establish the optimal cut-off point of the number of symptoms for functional impairment caused by CPU; and (4) to examine the association between problematic CPU and depression in adolescents. A total of 10,191 adolescent students in Southern Taiwan were recruited into this study. Participants' self-reported symptoms of problematic CPU and functional impairments caused by CPU were collected. The associations of symptoms of problematic CPU with functional impairments and with the characteristics of CPU were examined. The cut-off point of the number of symptoms for functional impairment was also determined. The association between problematic CPU and depression was examined by logistic regression analysis. The results indicated that the symptoms of problematic CPU were prevalent in adolescents. The adolescents who had any one of the symptoms of problematic CPU were more likely to report at least one dimension of functional impairment caused by CPU, called more on cellular phones, sent more text messages, or spent more time and higher fees on CPU. Having four or more symptoms of problematic CPU had the highest potential to differentiate between the adolescents with and without functional impairment caused by CPU. Adolescents who had significant depression were more likely to have four or more symptoms of problematic CPU. The results of this study may provide a basis for detecting symptoms of problematic CPU in adolescents.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date Collection: 2011

Publication date (Electronic): 31 January 2011

Volume: 11

Page: 66

Affiliations

[1 ]Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

[2 ]Department of Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

Article

Publisher ID: 1471-2458-11-66

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-66

PMC ID: 3042390

PubMed ID: 21281471

SO-VID: c343f5f4-4028-4e7a-904c-bdf26f1ddea4

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults - a prospective cohort study

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Abstract

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Most cited references 26

Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use.

Case-finding instruments for depression. Two questions are as good as many.

Symptoms of problematic cellular phone use, functional impairment and its association with depression among adolescents in Southern Taiwan.

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