Aremu Abdulmujeeb Babatunde, Afolabi Ismail Bamidele, Rashid Naziru
Faculty of Health Sciences, Islamic University in Uganda, Kampala Campus, Kampala Uganda.
Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Public Health, Cavendish University, Kampala, Uganda.
East Afr Health Res J. 2024;8(3):409-416. doi: 10.24248/eahrj.v8i3.811. Epub 2025 Jan 30.
Globally, smartphone use among university students is expanding at an exponential rate, and its lingering addiction has now become a global issue, causing some emotional comprehension issues that can lead to significant consequences. Hence, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of smartphone addiction (overuse) and its predictors among health sciences students at selected universities in Kampala, Uganda.
An online-based descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed for this study among 308 students of health sciences in Ugandan universities. A three-sectioned, pretested, and validated questionnaire was used to capture data on socio-demographic attributes and smartphone use habits from the respondents. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 26. The outcome variable (i.e., smartphone addiction) was transformed into a weighted aggregate score prior to dichotomisation. Analysis of variance, chi-square test of independence, and binary logistic regression analysis were employed for the study hypotheses, and the significance level was set at ≤.05.
The prevalence of smartphone addiction was found to be 53.9%. Female respondents were predominant, 179 (58.1%), and relatively three-quarters of the respondents, 237 (76.9%), were unmarried. The smartphone addiction score among the respondents was 16.13 (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.49 to 16.78) on a maximum reference scale of 30. At the multivariable model, daily time spent using a smartphone (AOR 0.40; 95% CI, 0.23 to 0.69) and the onset of smartphone use (AOR 0.55, 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.97) were identified as the significant independent predictors of smartphone addiction.
This study reported a high prevalence of smartphone addiction among the sampled health sciences students in Ugandan universities. The most significant predictors of smartphone addiction include the number of hours spent on a smartphone daily and the onset of smartphone use. Given the negative health outcomes that this problem may evoke, this study calls for targeted health education intervention to enhance self-control skills, and to effectively tackle smartphone addiction among university students in Uganda.
在全球范围内，大学生使用智能手机的人数正呈指数级增长，其长期成瘾问题现已成为一个全球性问题，引发了一些情感理解问题，可能导致严重后果。因此，本研究旨在评估乌干达坎帕拉选定大学健康科学专业学生中智能手机成瘾（过度使用）的程度及其预测因素。
本研究采用基于网络的描述性横断面研究设计，对乌干达大学的308名健康科学专业学生进行了调查。使用一份经过预测试和验证的三段式问卷，收集受访者的社会人口学特征和智能手机使用习惯数据。数据使用IBM SPSS 26版进行分析。在进行二分法之前，将结果变量（即智能手机成瘾）转换为加权综合得分。采用方差分析、独立性卡方检验和二元逻辑回归分析来验证研究假设，显著性水平设定为≤0.05。
发现智能手机成瘾的患病率为53.9%。女性受访者占主导地位，有179人（58.1%），相对而言，四分之三的受访者，即237人（76.9%）未婚。受访者的智能手机成瘾得分为16.13（95%置信区间[CI]，15.49至16.78），最高参考分数为30分。在多变量模型中，每天使用智能手机的时间（调整后比值比[AOR]为0.40；95%CI，0.23至0.69）和开始使用智能手机的时间（AOR为0.55，95%CI，0.31至0.97）被确定为智能手机成瘾的显著独立预测因素。
本研究报告称，乌干达大学抽样的健康科学专业学生中智能手机成瘾的患病率很高。智能手机成瘾的最重要预测因素包括每天花在智能手机上的时间以及开始使用智能手机的时间。鉴于这个问题可能引发的负面健康后果，本研究呼吁进行有针对性 的健康教育干预，以提高自我控制能力，并有效解决乌干达大学生中的智能手机成瘾问题。
