Nomophobia and its correlation with communication skills and decisional procrastination in medical sciences students (East of Iran)

Background Smartphones have become an integral part of daily life; however, excessive smartphone use may negatively affect psychological well-being and interpersonal functioning. This study aimed to investigate the association between nomophobia, communication skills, and decisional procrastination among medical sciences students. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 550 students at Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2023. Participants were selected using proportional-to-size stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling. Data were collected using a demographic information form, the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q), the Communication Skills Test-Revised (CSTR), and the Decisional Procrastination Scale (DPS). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression analysis using the backward elimination method were performed. Statistical significance was considered at P < 0.05. Results A total of 550 students with a mean age of 22.4 ± 2.8 years participated in the study; 333 (60.5%) were women and 487 (88.5%) were single. Most participants experienced moderate levels of nomophobia (315, 57.3%), and 345 (62.7%) demonstrated high communication skills. Age was negatively correlated with nomophobia and positively correlated with communication skills ( P < 0.001 and P = 0.001, respectively). Nomophobia was negatively correlated with communication skills and positively correlated with decisional procrastination, whereas communication skills were negatively correlated with decisional procrastination (all P < 0.05). In the multiple linear regression analysis, lower communication skills scores (β = −0.642, P < 0.001), higher decisional procrastination scores (β = 0.140, P < 0.001), younger age (β = −0.079, P = 0.015), and being married (β = 0.078, P = 0.017) were independently associated with higher nomophobia scores. The final regression model explained 48.5% of the variance in nomophobia (adjusted R² = 0.485). Conclusions Higher nomophobia scores were independently associated with lower communication skills scores and higher decisional procrastination scores among medical sciences students. Younger age and being married were also associated with higher nomophobia scores. Given the cross-sectional design, causal relationships cannot be determined. These findings highlight the importance of developing educational and behavioral interventions aimed at promoting healthy smartphone use, strengthening communication skills, and addressing decisional procrastination among university students.