Smartphone Addiction and Associated Health Outcomes in Adult Populations: A Systematic Review
Ratan ZA, Parrish AM, Zaman SB, Alotaibi MS, Hosseinzadeh H
International journal of environmental research and public health · 124 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Systematic review (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
Publication
- Published
- 2021-11-22 · Int J Environ Res Public Health · vol. 18 · issue 22 · p. 12257
- Publisher
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
- Cited
- 286 citations · more than 99% of similar papers · 9.8× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 69 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Child Development and Digital Technology · COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- smartphone addiction, smartphone overuse, mental health outcomes, anxiety, depression, physical health outcomes, neurological disorders, adults
- MeSH
- humans, anxiety, mental health, adult, smartphone, outcome assessment, health care, internet addiction disorder
5 authors
From BD, AU, SA
- Zubair Ahmed RatanKhulna University of Engineering and Technology; University of Wollongong
- Anne‐Maree Parrish · correspondingUniversity of Wollongong
- Sojib Bin ZamanMonash Health; Monash University
- Mohammad Saud AlotaibiUmm al-Qura University; University of Wollongong
- Hassan Hosseinzadeh · correspondingUniversity of Wollongong
Abstract
Background
Smartphones play a critical role in increasing human-machine interactions, with many advantages. However, the growing popularity of smartphone use has led to smartphone overuse and addiction. This review aims to systematically investigate the impact of smartphone addiction on health outcomes.
Methods
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used to carry out the systematic review. Five electronic databases including Medline, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus were searched to identify eligible studies. Eligible studies were screened against predetermined inclusion criteria and data were extracted according to the review questions. This review is registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020181404). The quality of the articles was assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies.
Results
A total of 27 of 2550 articles met the inclusion criteria. All of the studies were cross-sectional and focused on physical, mental, and neurological health outcomes. The majority of the studies focused on mental health outcomes and consistent associations were observed between smartphone addiction and several mental health outcomes. Anxiety and depression were commonly found to mediate mental health problems. A wide range of physical health sequelae was also associated with smartphone addiction. Furthermore, there was an association between smartphone addiction and neurological disorders.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that there are consistent associations between smartphone addiction and physical and mental health, especially mental health. Social awareness campaigns about smartphone addiction and its impact on physical and mental health are needed. Further studies, especially randomized controlled trials, are warranted to validate the impacts of smartphone addiction.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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