[Association of mobile phone overuse with sleep disorder and unhealthy eating behaviors in college students of a medical university in Guangzhou].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association of mobile phone use with sleep disorder and unhealthy eating behavior among college students of a medical university in Guangzhou.

METHODS

Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire (MPIQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire Revised 21 Item (TFEQ-R21) were used to survey 2122 undergraduates of the medical university. One-sample t test, One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Age, body mass index (BMI), phone use before sleep, phone use frequency, sleep quality (assessed by total PSQI score) and the dimension scores of TFEQ-R21 for uncontrolled eating, cognitive restraint, and emotional eating were all significantly correlated with the total score of MPIQ ( < 0.05). Phone use before sleep, high frequency of mobile phone use, poor sleep quality and emotional eating were associated with high MPIQ scores, while lower cognitive restraint and emotional eating tendency were correlated with lower scores of MPIQ. Bivariate analysis revealed that age (=0.088, < 0.001), BMI (=0.055, < 0.05), PSQI scores (=0.204, < 0.001), TFEQ-UE scores (=0.199, < 0.001), TFEQ-CR scores (=-0.076, < 0.001), TFEQ-EE scores (=0.170, < 0.001), phone use before sleep (=0.429, < 0.001), and phone use frequency (=0.316, < 0.001) were all significantly correlated with MPIQ scores; multiple linear regression analysis showed that model 4 incorporating the scores of TFEQ-UE, TFEQ-CR, and TFEQ-EE explained up to 21.8% of the main effect (adjusted R= 21.5%).

CONCLUSIONS

Mobile phone overuse is associated with poor sleep quality and unhealthy eating behaviors, and education and interventions for mobile phone use is essential among college students.