Smartphone Addiction Among Students at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Fez, Morocco

Smartphones are now an indispensable part of everyday life, providing a significant source of information, communication, education and entertainment. However, excessive use or addiction can have harmful effects on the mental and physical health of their users. This is a phenomenon that presents a real and growing public health problem, particularly affecting young people. Objective: To assess smartphone addiction among students using appropriate tools, and to describe its various negative mental and physical consequences. Material and Method: This is a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study spread from January to April 2018, on a sample of students from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Fez, including all levels of the 2017/2018 academic year. Data were collected anonymously through an online questionnaire, constructed of several sections including the SAS-SV scale. Results: 265 students responded to our questionnaire. Participants ranged in age from 17 to 32 years, with a sex ratio of 0.43:1. The students ranged in level from first year to 8th year, with a predominance of postgraduate students. A history of psychiatric and somatic disorders was rare. The study revealed that smartphone addiction was detected in 53% of female participants and 45% of male participants, with a total percentage of addiction of 50.94% for both sexes. Psychic signs such as anxiety, loss of control, disturbance and withdrawal were more prevalent than physical signs such as wrist and neck pain. Psychic signs have the particularity of appearing instantaneously or in the short term, unlike somatic signs other than wrist and neck pain, which take longer to develop, as do tumour pathologies and ocular risks, which were not included in our study. Conclusion: The results obtained from our sample reached the threshold value predictive of smartphone addiction. Awareness of this risk needs to be raised, with recommendations on limiting the daily duration of use.