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Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults--a prospective cohort study.

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Thomée S, Härenstam A, Hagberg M. · 2011

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High frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for mental health outcomes at 1-year follow-up, and the risk was greatest for those who perceived accessibility via mobile phones as stressful.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

The study included 4156 young adults aged 20-24 who completed questionnaires at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Mobile phone exposure variables included frequency of use and qualitative aspects such as demands on availability, perceived stressfulness of accessibility, being awakened at night, and personal overuse. Cross-sectionally, high mobile phone use was linked to stress, sleep disturbances, and depression symptoms in both sexes; prospectively, high use predicted sleep disturbances and depression symptoms in men and depression symptoms in women, while overuse predicted stress and sleep disturbances in women and high accessibility stress predicted stress, sleep disturbances, and depression symptoms in both sexes.

Why This Matters

The researchers aimed to investigate associations between psychosocial aspects of mobile phone use and mental health symptoms in a prospective cohort of young adults. All qualitative mobile phone variables showed cross-sectional associations with mental health outcomes. High frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for mental health outcomes at 1-year follow-up among the young adults. Mental health outcomes included current stress, sleep disorders, and symptoms of depression. Prevalence ratios were calculated for cross-sectional and prospective associations separately for men and women. The authors suggested public health prevention strategies focusing on attitudes, including information and advice to help young adults set limits on accessibility.

Study Details

The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether there are associations between psychosocial aspects of mobile phone use and mental health symptoms in a prospective cohort of young adults.

The study group consisted of young adults 20-24 years old (n = 4156), who responded to a questionnai...

There were cross-sectional associations between high compared to low mobile phone use and stress, sl...

High frequency of mobile phone use at baseline was a risk factor for mental health outcomes at 1-year follow-up among the young adults. The risk for reporting mental health symptoms at follow-up was greatest among those who had perceived 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.

Cite This Study
Thomée S, Härenstam A, Hagberg M. (2011). Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults--a prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health. 11:66, 2011.
Show BibTeX
@article{s_2011_mobile_phone_use_and_2623,
  author = {Thomée S and Härenstam A and Hagberg M.},
  title = {Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults--a prospective cohort study.},
  year = {2011},
  doi = {10.1186/1471-2458-11-66},
  url = {https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-11-66/},
}
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-66

Cited By (1,197 papers)

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Quick Questions About This Study

The study included 4156 young adults aged 20-24 who completed questionnaires at baseline and 1-year follow-up.
Exposure variables included frequency of use and qualitative aspects such as demands on availability, perceived stressfulness of accessibility, being awakened at night, and personal overuse.
Mental health outcomes included current stress, sleep disorders, and symptoms of depression.
High mobile phone use was cross-sectionally associated with stress, sleep disturbances, and depression symptoms for both men and women.
The risk was greatest among those who perceived accessibility via mobile phones as stressful.