Patterns of smartphone usage associated with depressive symptoms in nursing students

Yajuan Yang; Mats Granlund; Fangbiao Tao; Shuman Tao; Liwei Zou; Xiaoyan Wu; Jingfang Hong; Karin Enskär

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1136126

Patterns of smartphone usage associated with depressive symptoms in nursing students

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 3:14:1136126. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1136126. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yajuan Yang¹, Mats Granlund², Fangbiao Tao^{3

4}, Shuman Tao⁴, Liwei Zou⁴, Xiaoyan Wu^{3

4}, Jingfang Hong¹, Karin Enskär⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
² CHILD, School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.
³ Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
⁴ MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle, Hefei, China.
⁵ Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

Abstract

Introduction: Rather than focusing on the activities that the smartphone has been used for, the existing literature frequently focuses on the association between problematic use of smartphone independent of the content of use (self-reported) and depressive symptoms in youth. This study aims to explore patterns of smartphone usage and the association with depressive symptoms in nursing students.

Methods: This cross-sectional study of nursing freshmen (n = 1, 716) was conducted between October and November 2018. Participants were recruited from three Chinese public medical universities using stratified cluster sampling. Self-rated frequency of 12 different smartphone activities over the preceding week was evaluated. Depressive symptoms were assessed by using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).

Results: Of the 1,716 students recruited, 1,424 (83.0%) were girls, and the mean [SD] age was 18.90 [1.39] years. Using principal component analysis (PCA), two typical usage patterns were indicated. The "entertainment pattern" factor included a high frequency of streaming images or videos, searching for information, chatting online, online shopping, downloading, reading online, checking social media sites, taking pictures or videos, and playing games. The "communication pattern" had a high frequency of emailing, texting, and calling. Using logistic regression models, the association between smartphone usage patterns and depressive symptoms was tested. The "communication pattern" was significantly associated with a 53% increase in the odds of moderate and above depressive symptoms (AOR = 1.529; 95% CI = 1.286-1.818; p < 0.001), controlling for a set of socio-demographic and smartphone use covariates.

Discussion: This study provides insights into how the patterns of smartphone usage are associated with the severity of depressive symptoms in nursing students. It indicates that it may primarily be how we use our smartphones rather than how much we use them that poses a risk for depression.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; principal component analysis; problematic smartphone use; smartphone usage pattern; students.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Research Project of School of Nursing of Anhui Medical University (approval number hlpy20210009) and Research and Practice on the Construction of National First-Class Nursing Majors in Local Universities (2020jyxm0853).