Study to Assess the Effects of Screen Time among MBBS Students and Its Correlation with Sleep Quality and Mental Health

Background: Excessive screen time is a serious condition which is effects on health and leads to various physical and mental health problems, especially in adolescents. Now a days common health issues related to Excessive screen time is like sleep disturbances, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression,poor academic performances etc. and finally lead to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Aim: To assess the effect of screen time among MBBS students and its correlation with sleep quality and mental health. Methodology: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate MBBS students in Government Medical College Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh. A total of 200 students were recruited in this study by simple random sampling, and data were collected through interview basis. Results: This study found that, majority of the participants (47%) were belonged to age between 19 and 20 years, followed by 35% of the participants were between 21 and 22 years. The mean age of the study participant was 20.17 ± 1.37 years. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale, in which good quality of sleep was found highest among 1 st -year MBBS students (33.3%), followed by 3 rd -year MBBS students (28.7%) and poor sleep quality was maximum among final-year MBBS students (30.97%), followed by 2 nd -year MBBS students (28.31%). Moreover, according to DASS-21 scale, the overall prevalence stress was 26.5%, anxiety was 44.5%, and depression was 39%. Conclusions: This study found that those who are spent screen time >4 h showed mild-to-moderate stress, anxiety, and depression according to DASS-21 scale. Hence, it is very important information to create awareness among the students on the negative effect of screen time on their mental health.