Latent profiles and associated factors of problematic short-video use among nurses in tertiary hospitals: a cross-sectional study

Short-video platforms are increasingly embedded in nurses’ daily rest and emotional regulation, but problematic short-video use may be associated with impaired recovery and occupational functioning. Evidence on heterogeneous patterns of problematic short-video use among clinical nurses and their relationship with presenteeism remains limited. To identify latent profiles of problematic short-video use among nurses in tertiary Grade A hospitals and examine whether presenteeism, work interference with personal life, perceived organizational support, and relevant sociodemographic and occupational characteristics were associated with latent profile membership. A cross-sectional study was conducted from October to December 2025. A total of 700 clinical nurses from three tertiary Grade A hospitals in Wuhan were recruited using convenience sampling. After excluding 20 invalid questionnaires, 680 valid responses were included. Data were collected using a general information questionnaire, the Problematic Short-Video Use Scale-9 (PSVUS-9), the Perceived Organizational Support Scale, the Stanford Presenteeism Scale, and the five-item Work interference with personal life (WIPL) subscale of the Work/Nonwork Interference and Enhancement Scale. SPSS 27.0 was used for descriptive statistics and univariate analysis, Mplus 8.3 was used for latent profile analysis, and R software was used for multivariable multinomial logistic regression analysis. The total score for problematic short-video use among nurses in tertiary Grade A hospitals was 21.23 ± 8.80, and 38.4% of nurses were at risk of problematic use. Latent profile analysis identified three classes: the low-symptom use group, consisting of 383 nurses (56.3%); the escape-withdrawal prominent group, consisting of 226 nurses (33.2%); and the high-symptom comprehensive risk group, consisting of 71 nurses (10.5%). Significant differences were found among the three latent classes in gender, department, perceived organizational support, work interference with personal life, and presenteeism ( P < 0.05). Multinomial logistic regression showed that, after controlling for gender, department, perceived organizational support, and work interference with personal life, presenteeism was significantly associated with membership in both the escape-withdrawal prominent group (OR = 1.392, 95%CI: 1.115–1.738, P = 0.003) and the high-symptom comprehensive risk group (OR = 2.365, 95%CI: 1.641–3.409, P < 0.001). Problematic short-video use among nurses in tertiary Grade A hospitals showed obvious heterogeneity. Presenteeism was a stable factor associated with different risk classes of problematic short-video use, suggesting that high-symptom status may be closely related to impaired on-the-job functioning and insufficient recovery among nurses. Nursing managers may conduct stratified identification based on latent class characteristics and incorporate presenteeism, departmental context, and recovery resources into occupational health management for nurses.