Patterns of Use of ?Smart Phones? among Male Medical Students at KFU and its Side Effects

Background Nowadays, smartphones are widely use all over the word especially between young Adults people, and this will lead to many health problems. Objective To study the pattern of use of smart phones, the accompanying behaviour and related health hazards among medical students at King Faisal University, Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. Methods A cross-sectional survey was carried out with 125 male students. The participants were enrolled by simple random selection in April 2016 at the College of Medicine, King Faisal University. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed and completed by each participant. Results Of 125 students who completed the questionnaire, 38.4% of them see that smartphones have a better effect in their academic performance, 31.2% see it have a worse effect, while 30.4% of them denied any effect.56% of participants use smartphones in medium use. Chatting is the most common reason of use of smartphones. Many medical side effects have been reported among medical students, chronic headache (63.2%), concentration problem (49.6%), some time. long-term memory problem (30.4%), recent memory problem (40%), insomnia (47.2%) and prolong sleep (6.4%). There is a significant relation between participants' GPA and time which they use their smartphone in. there is a significant relation between type of phone and duration of use. And also significant relation between type of phone and effect of smartphone in academic performance. Conclusion Smartphones are widely used among medical students but college work is not the main reason of use and chatting is the commonest. According to the experience and opinions of most of participants, smartphones increase the productivity and help in work for medical students. Even the most of medical students use smartphone by medium use, they get many medical effects, and headache is the commonest.