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Over usage of mobile phones and addiction are emerging challenges to the public
health worldwide. It has vastly affected the life style of the people and caused some
behavioral changes. Thus, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, associated
factors and prevalence of health problems related to usage of mobile phones among
a selected population of university students in University of Sri Jayewardenepura. This
study involved 384 randomly selected 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates who completed
the pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. The statistical analysis was done
using International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) statistics SPSS version 21.0
software. The study group consisted of 121(32.5%) males and 251(67.5%) females.
Response rate was 96.9%. The mean age was 23±lyear. Majority of the students
demonstrated a good knowledge regarding usage and adverse health effects of
mobile phones. 83.1% students were moderately addicted to their mobile phones
while 5.1% students were severely addicted. Significantly higher mobile phone
addiction level showed incidence of some health problems such as headache, body
ache, ear ache, irritability/restlessness, sleep disturbances, hearing defects while or
after using mobile phone among the study subjects (P<0.05). Significant relationships
were found between high mobile phone addiction level and unable to understand
lectures as well as feeling memory loss among study participants (P<0.05). This
study serves as an evidence-based background to make the public aware regarding
potential health risks related to mobile phone over usage and the need to educate
the public to depend less on the device.
