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Association between the pattern of mobile phone use and sleep quality in Northeast China college students

  • Epidemiology • Original Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

Currently, mobile penetration is high amongst college students. The aims of this study were to investigate the characteristics of mobile phone use and to explore the influence of mobile phone use characteristics on sleep quality amongst college students.

Methods

From December 2016 to January 2017, we collected mobile phone use characteristics and sleep quality data using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and standardised questionnaires that were answered by 4500 medical university students in Liaoning Province (actual response rate of 94%, n = 4234 college students). This study used the SPSS 21.0 software to establish the database and perform the statistical analysis.

Results

One hundred percent of the college students had mobile phones and used mobile phones for entertainment (91%), work (51%), obtaining information (61%), and other purposes (23%). Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference in the PSQI score between students who held the phone at a distance of more than 10 cm from their eyes and those who held it a distance of less than 10 cm (P = 0.002). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of poor sleep quality was 1.21–1.53 times higher for those who spent more than 5 h a day using their phones and 1.41–1.59 times higher for those who used their phones for more than half an hour before going to bed when the lights were off.

Conclusions

Daily cumulative mobile phone use and use with the lights off before sleep are associated with poorer sleep quality.

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Acknowledgements

We thanked you for everyone who helped me during writing this thesis.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81703185), Dr. Started Foundation of Liaoning Province (NO: 20170520363) and new teacher of China Medical University (NO: 1210516008).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Fang Wang contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, China Medical University, No. 77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning, China

    Jia Meng, Fang Wang, Rentong Chen, Hui Hua, Dan Yang, Nan Wang, Xin Li, Fangfang Ma, Liting Huang, Zhenzhen Zou, Menglin Li, Tieting Wang, Yannan Luo, Yunda Li & Yang Liu

  2. School of Public Health, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China

    Jia Meng

  3. Department of Personnel, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China

    Qian Yang

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  1. Jia Meng
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  2. Fang Wang
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  3. Rentong Chen
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  16. Yang Liu
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Correspondence to Yang Liu.

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Meng, J., Wang, F., Chen, R. et al. Association between the pattern of mobile phone use and sleep quality in Northeast China college students. Sleep Breath 25, 2259–2267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02295-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-021-02295-2

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