The Relationship between Duration of Smartphone Uses and Anxiety in University Students during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Jianmin Wang, Wang Li, Liang Ding and Shulei Chen
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Jianmin Wang: Department of Physical Education, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian 223003, China
Wang Li: Department of Physical Education, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huaian 223003, China
Liang Ding: Department of Physical Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Shulei Chen: Department of Physical Education, Dalian University of Science and Technology, Dalian 116052, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-8

Abstract: Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, China adopted a home isolation policy, which caused lifestyle changes for university students, including increased smartphone use. Several studies indicate that problematic smartphone use is associated with anxiety. However, this association has not been examined in the context of epidemics. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the duration of smartphone use was associated with anxiety in Chinese university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Participants included 9716 university students (5458 men and 4258 women) from Liaoning, China. We assessed the duration of smartphone use with a self-reported questionnaire. Anxiety was assessed using the generalized anxiety disorder seven-item scale. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the adjusted association between smartphone use and anxiety. Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, we observed a positive association between smartphone use duration and the prevalence of anxiety in all participating students. Compared with short periods of smartphone usage, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for moderate and long smartphone usage duration were 1.17 (1.00, 1.36) and 1.58 (1.36, 1.83), respectively. This significant positive association did not change in the sex-stratified analysis (for both men and women). Conclusions: Our examination of the association between duration of smartphone uses and university students’ anxiety levels revealed that long smartphone use was associated with a high prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: smartphone usage; anxiety; university students; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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