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Factors associated with mental health among high school students in Iran: Does mobile phone overuse associate with poor mental health?
Author(s) -
Mahmoodi Hassan,
Nadrian Haidar,
Shaghaghi Abdolreza,
Jafarabadi Mohammad Asghari,
Ahmadi Asad,
Saqqezi Galavidj Sharifi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of child and adolescent psychiatric nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.331
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1744-6171
pISSN - 1073-6077
DOI - 10.1111/jcap.12202
Subject(s) - mental health , odds ratio , confidence interval , logistic regression , medicine , addiction , mobile phone , phone , odds , health education , psychology , demography , clinical psychology , psychiatry , public health , nursing , telecommunications , linguistics , philosophy , sociology , computer science
Problem Mobile phone (MP) overuse is extensively rising among high school students in developing countries. Our aim in this study is to investigate the association between MP overuse and mental health, in the presence of other determinant factors, among high school students in Iran. Methods We recruited a clustered random sample of 1,034 high school students in Saqqez County, Iran, to complete a self‐administered questionnaire with three sections: a sociodemographic questionnaire, Mobile Phone Addiction Index, and General Health Questionnaire. Findings A majority of the students ( n = 654, 63.2%) were found to be with poor mental health. Applying multiple logistic regression, gender (odds ratio [OR] = 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15–1.97), education degree (OR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.30–1.67), frequency of daily messages (OR = 1.18; 95% CI = 1.07–1.31), being awakened at night for MP use (OR = 1.83; 95% CI = 1.54–2.18), and MP overuse (OR = 3.21; 95% CI = 1.20–8.58) were found in significant associations with poor mental health. Conclusions Planning gender‐based health education programs on proper use of MP for students and their parents is suggested to school healthcare providers. The parents should be educated on the proper ways of dealing with their adolescents while using MP at home.