Mobile Phone Use and Stress, Sleep Disturbances, and Symptoms of Depression among Young Adults - A Prospective Cohort Study

Sara Thomée; Annika Härenstam; Mats Hagberg

BMC Public Health. 2011;11

Conclusions

There were cross-sectional and prospective associations between mobile phone variables and mental health outcomes among the young adults. High frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for reporting sleep disturbances and symptoms of depression for the men and symptoms of depression for the women at 1-year follow-up. The risk for reporting mental health symptoms at follow-up was greatest among those who had reported that they perceived the accessibility via mobile phones to be stressful. Public health prevention strategies focusing on attitudes could include information and advice, helping young adults to set limits for their own and others' accessibility by mobile phone.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Next Section

Acknowledgements
The study was funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.

Authors' contributions
ST, AH, and MH designed the study. ST performed the data analysis and wrote the manuscript. AH and MH supervised the data analysis, and discussed and contributed to the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Cite this: Mobile Phone Use and Stress, Sleep Disturbances, and Symptoms of Depression among Young Adults - A Prospective Cohort Study - Medscape - Jan 01, 2011.

Table 1. Mobile phone variables at baseline
Category	Mobile phone variables	Men		Women
		n = 1455		n = 2701
		Freq	%	Freq	%
	Frequency of calls
Low	0 per day	69	5	51	2
Low	1–5 per day	952	65	1946	72
Med	6–10 per day	301	21	543	20
High	11–20 per day	97	7	108	4
High	More than 20 per day	36	2	47	2
	Frequency of SMS messages
Low	0 per day	126	9	58	2
Low	1–5 per day	906	62	1609	60
Med	6–10 per day	262	18	634	23
High	11–20 per day	98	7	259	10
High	More than 20 per day	60	4	140	5
	Mobile phone use
Low	Low Calls + Low SMS	804	55	1433	53
Med	Low Calls + Med SMS or vice versa	326	22	616	23
High	High Calls and/or High SMS, or Med Calls + Med SMS	323	22	645	24
	Awakened at night
Low	Never	600	41	989	37
Med	Only occasionally	657	45	1248	46
High	A few times per month	164	11	386	14
High	A few times per week	27	2	68	3
High	Almost every day	6	0	9	0
	Availability demands
Low	Never	23	2	12	0
Low	Now and then, but not daily	82	6	86	3
Low	Daily, but not all day	278	19	828	31
Med	All day	680	47	1127	42
High	Around the clock	388	27	642	24
	Accessibility stress
Low	Not at all stressful	892	61	1229	46
Med	A little bit stressful	418	29	1083	40
High	Rather stressful	115	8	311	12
High	Very stressful	28	2	75	3
	Overuse
	Item 1: Use too much	184	13	587	22
	Item 2: Tried to cut down unsuccessfully	87	6	371	14
Low	No item	1199	84	1898	71
Med	One item	183	13	579	22
High	Both items	41	3	187	7

Frequencies (Freq) and percentages (%) in mobile phone variables for the men and women, including categorizations into Low, Medium (Med), and High. Questionnaire items are presented in footnote¹. Missing values (non-responses to items) are not accounted for, which means that the n varies for the variables.
¹Questionnaire items; Frequency of calls: How many mobile phone calls on average have you made and received per day (the past 30 days)?, Frequency of SMS messages: How many SMS messages on average have you sent and received per day (the past 30 days)?, Awakened at night: How often have you been awakened by the mobile phone at night (the past 30 days)?, Availability demands: To what extent are you expected by those around you to be accessible via the mobile phone?, Accessibility stress: To what extent do you perceive accessibility via mobile phones as stressful?, Overuse: 1. Do you or someone close to you think that you use the mobile phone too much?, 2. Have you tried, but failed, to cut down on your use of the mobile phone?

Table 2. Correlations between the mobile phone exposure variables at baseline
	Awakened at night	Availability demands	Accessibility stress	Overuse
	Men/Women	Men/Women	Men/Women	Men/Women
Mobile phone use	0.31^a/0.32^a	0.24^a/0.23^a	0.09^b/0.10^a	0.24^a/0.30^a
Awakened at night		0.28^a/0.28^a	0.07^c/0.09^a	0.14^a/0.21^a
Availability demands			-0.002 ns/0.03 ns	0.10^a/0.11^a
Accessibility stress				0.20^a/0.22^a

Spearman correlation coefficients for the men (n = 1455) and women (n = 2701). All correlations are statistically significant (^ap < 0.001, ^bp < 0.01, ^cp < 0.05) unless indicated as non-significant (ns).

Table 3. Associations between mobile phone variables and mental health outcomes at baseline for men (n = 1455) and women (n = 2701)
		CURRENT STRESS				SLEEP DISTURBANCES				SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION One item				SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION Two items
		n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI
Mobile phone use
Men	High	295	23	1.9	1.42–2.54	294	33	1.7	1.40–2.19	208	37	1.2	0.94–1.46	215	39	1.3	1.02–1.58
	Medium	309	16	1.3	0.98–1.84	309	21	1.1	0.87–1.47	235	39	1.2	1.00–1.48	216	34	1.1	0.90–1.43
	Low	749	13	1.0		746	20	1.0		573	34	1.0		551	31	1.0
Women	High	570	32	1.2	1.07–1.45	566	43	1.4	1.21–1.56	351	51	1.2	1.04–1.35	384	55	1.2	1.06–1.34
	Medium	559	31	1.2	1.06–1.44	554	34	1.1	0.98–1.31	366	45	1.1	0.93–1.22	390	49	1.1	0.98–1.26
	Low	1304	26	1.0		1300	30	1.0		898	42	1.0		916	44	1.0
Availability demands
Men	High	360	18	1.5	1.04–2.15	359	27	1.3	0.96–1.64	251	35	1.0	0.76–1.20	267	39	1.3	1.00–1.64
	Medium	634	17	1.5	1.04–2.02	631	21	1.1	0.82–1.36	485	34	0.9	0.74–1.09	468	31	1.1	0.86–1.38
	Low	357	12	1.0		357	21	1.0		280	39	1.0		245	30	1.0
Women	High	586	33	1.3	1.14–1.57	583	41	1.4	1.21–1.61	356	47	1.2	0.99–1.33	413	54	1.3	1.10–1.43
	Medium	1006	28	1.1	0.95–1.29	999	34	1.2	1.03–1.36	667	47	1.2	1.02–1.31	683	49	1.2	1.02–1.31
	Low	841	25	1.0		838	28	1.0		591	41	1.0		594	41	1.0
Awakened at night
Men	High	182	24	1.8	1.29–2.51	182	35	1.9	1.44–2.43	117	44	1.3	1.05–1.72	129	49	1.6	1.27–2.03
	Medium	613	16	1.2	0.90–1.58	610	23	1.3	1.04–1.64	465	36	1.1	0.93–1.33	441	32	1.1	0.92–1.37
	Low	560	13	1.0		559	18	1.0		436	33	1.0		413	29	1.0
Women	High	417	36	1.5	1.24–1.75	413	44	1.4	1.24–1.67	234	51	1.1	0.98–1.34	294	61	1.4	1.26–1.65
	Medium	1118	29	1.2	1.04–1.40	1111	33	1.1	0.97–1.26	735	44	1.0	0.90–1.14	786	48	1.2	1.03–1.32
	Low	901	24	1.0		900	30	1.0		646	44	1.0		614	41	1.0
Accessibility stress
Men	High	131	39	3.5	2.58–4.64	131	27	1.3	0.98–1.81	71	54	1.8	1.42–2.31	91	64	2.4	1.96–2.94
	Medium	387	18	1.6	1.21–2.14	385	25	1.2	0.99–1.53	287	41	1.3	1.12–1.60	268	37	1.4	1.20–1.67
	Low	835	11	1.0		833	21	1.0		658	31	1.0		623	27	1.0
Women	High	345	49	2.5	2.13–2.94	345	47	1.6	1.39–1.85	199	59	1.4	1.24–1.65	224	64	1.7	1.46–1.90
	Medium	986	31	1.6	1.38–1.87	978	34	1.2	1.03–1.32	610	44	1.1	0.94–1.20	707	52	1.4	1.22–1.54
	Low	1104	20	1.0		1100	29	1.0		807	42	1.0		761	38	1.0
Overuse
Men	High	38	32	2.1	1.30–3.50	38	37	1.7	1.10–2.55	23	43	1.3	0.83–2.15	28	54	1.7	1.18–2.41
	Medium	170	17	1.2	0.81–1.67	170	23	1.1	0.79–1.43	117	38	1.1	0.87–1.44	126	42	1.4	1.10–1.72
	Low	1120	15	1.0		1116	22	1.0		856	35	1.0		809	31	1.0
Women	High	165	41	1.6	1.31–1.96	164	41	1.3	1.10–1.61	93	54	1.3	1.04–1.55	114	62	1.4	1.23–1.67
	Medium	526	33	1.3	1.09–1.46	522	38	1.2	1.04–1.35	328	52	1.2	1.06–1.36	355	55	1.2	1.10–1.38
	Low	1716	26	1.0		1709	32	1.0		1179	42	1.0		1204	44	1.0

Prevalence (prev %) of mental health symptoms in each exposure category is shown. The prevalence ratios (PRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were adjusted for relationship status, educational level, and occupation. Missing values (non-responses to items) were excluded from the analyses, which means that the n varied in the analyses. Prevalence ratios with a CI not including 1.00 (before round-off) are given in bold.

Table 4. Prospective associations between mobile phone variables at baseline and mental health outcomes at 1-year follow-up
		CURRENT STRESS				SLEEP DISTURBANCES				SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION One item				SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION Two items
		n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI	n	Prev %	PR	95% CI
Mobile phone use
Men	High	227	8	0.9	0.51–1.47	193	21	1.8	1.21–2.69	120	38	1.7	1.14–2.46	86	13	1.1	0.53–2.10
	Medium	258	11	1.2	0.76–1.87	243	17	1.4	0.98–2.11	121	30	1.4	0.94–2.10	105	19	1.5	0.86–2.53
	Low	652	10	1.0		596	13	1.0		333	23	1.0		305	15	1.0
Women	High	389	20	1.1	0.84–1.43	323	24	1.2	0.91–1.57	131	39	1.2	0.88–1.69	120	33	1.5	1.02–2.24
	Medium	382	18	1.0	0.75–1.30	367	20	1.1	0.81–1.40	161	31	0.9	0.68–1.30	150	26	1.2	0.83–1.79
	Low	968	19	1.0		909	19	1.0		435	33	1.0		370	22	1.0
Availability demands
Men	High	296	14	1.6	0.97–2.56	261	19	1.4	0.91–2.12	137	30	1.2	0.76–1.85	120	20	1.6	0.88–3.05
	Medium	525	8	0.9	0.56–1.44	491	14	1.0	0.66–1.45	285	26	1.0	0.70–1.52	246	15	1.1	0.63–1.96
	Low	314	9	1.0		280	15	1.0		152	26	1.0		131	14	1.0
Women	High	390	22	1.3	0.99–1.76	342	22	1.1	0.81–1.45	146	32	0.9	0.62–1.23	141	30	1.4	0.94–2.17
	Medium	722	19	1.1	0.87–1.45	655	20	1.0	0.79–1.30	281	31	0.8	0.63–1.12	263	26	1.2	0.85–1.78
	Low	625	17	1.0		599	19	1.0		299	37	1.0		235	20	1.0
Awakened at night
Men	High	138	13	1.4	0.80–2.42	116	21	1.4	0.90–2.31	57	32	1.1	0.68–1.94	48	19	1.4	0.65–2.86
	Medium	516	10	1.1	0.71–1.60	462	15	1.0	0.74–1.47	264	27	1.0	0.74–1.45	225	15	1.0	0.63–1.65
	Low	485	9	1.0		456	15	1.0		254	26	1.0		224	16	1.0
Women	High	268	22	1.2	0.86–1.60	229	23	1.2	0.87–1.68	96	39	1.2	0.84–1.81	78	24	1.1	0.62–1.80
	Medium	791	17	0.9	0.70–1.12	740	20	1.1	0.86–1.39	324	33	1.0	0.78–1.34	299	28	1.3	0.90–1.77
	Low	680	20	1.0		630	19	1.0		307	33	1.0		263	22	1.0
Accessibility stress
Men	High	80	19	2.2	1.22–3.80	94	23	1.7	1.06–2.71	25	24	0.9	0.40–2.14	27	30	2.3	1.06.4.98
	Medium	317	11	1.3	0.88–2.01	288	16	1.2	0.84–1.69	145	32	1.3	0.89–1.79	123	20	1.6	0.96–2.56
	Low	740	9	1.0		651	14	1.0		404	25	1.0		347	13	1.0
Women	High	176	32	2.2	1.61–3.00	181	27	1.5	1.10–2.14	54	43	1.3	0.82–2.03	58	47	2.4	1.50–3.68
	Medium	677	21	1.5	1.15–1.85	645	21	1.2	0.96–1.54	280	35	1.1	0.84–1.42	241	24	1.2	0.82–1.63
	Low	885	15	1.0		773	18	1.0		393	32	1.0		341	21	1.0
Over-use
Men	High	26	12	1.2	0.36–3.71	23	22	1.4	0.58.3.49	11	54	1.9	0.82–4.45	7	29	2.0	0.48–8.43
	Medium	141	13	1.3	0.79–2.18	129	13	0.9	0.52–1.43	67	28	1.1	0.68–1.80	53	9	0.6	0.25–1.55
	Low	953	10	1.0		866	16	1.0		484	26	1.0		428	16	1.0
Women	High	98	21	1.3	0.80–1.97	94	32	1.8	1.21–2.62	35	29	0.9	0.46–1.63	33	24	1.1	0.51–2.16
	Medium	353	24	1.4	1.08–1.79	323	24	1.4	1.06–1.78	125	40	1.2	0.89–1.66	109	31	1.4	0.92–2.00
	Low	1269	17	1.0		1163	18	1.0		560	33	1.0		491	23	1.0

Participants who reported symptoms at baseline were excluded from prospective analysis of mental health outcome concerned. Study group n in prospective analysis was for Current stress: 1222 men and 1913 women, Sleep disturbances: 1107 men and 1762 women, Symptoms of depression (one item): 617 men and 791 women, and Symptoms of depression (two items): 534 men and 692 women. Prevalence (prev %) of mental health symptoms at 1-year follow-up in each exposure category is shown. The prevalence ratios (PRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were adjusted for relationship status, educational level and occupation. Missing values (non-responses to items) were excluded from the analyses, which means that the n varied in the analyses. Prevalence ratios with a CI not including 1.00 are given in bold.

Comments

Commenting is limited to medical professionals. To comment please Log-in.

Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.

processing....

Mobile Phone Use and Stress, Sleep Disturbances, and Symptoms of Depression among Young Adults - A Prospective Cohort Study

Conclusions

Tables

Tables

Tables

Tables

References

Authors and Disclosures

Authors and Disclosures

Comments

Email This

Feedback