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Subject Area

General Surgery

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objective To assess the prevalence and severity of nomophobia among medical residents in Menoufia University Hospitals and to assess its relation with anxiety, doctor–patient relationship, and residents' specialty/subspecialty. Background Nomophobia is an abbreviation for 'no-mobile-phone phobia,' which describes anxiety experienced by mobile phone users in its absence; it is the fear of becoming technologically incommunicable. This fear is characterized by physical, psychological, and cognitive symptoms in the context of stress or danger. Patients and methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 221 medical residents in Menoufia University Hospitals in the frame of 13 months. They were assessed through predesigned questionnaires to determine the prevalence and severity of nomophobia and anxiety. Doctor–patient relationship was observed through Kalamazoo checklist. Results Prevalence of both nomophobia and anxiety was 100% among the studied group. More than half of the participants had moderate nomophobia and ~ 73% of the participants had mild anxiety. There was a positive moderate correlation between anxiety and nomophobia (r = 0.51), as increasing the severity of anxiety was associated with increasing in severity of nomophobia. Relation between nomophobia and anxiety was significant positive regarding doctor–patient relationship (P < 0.001), whereas a strong negative correlation regarding good doctor–patient relationship (r=−0.37) was detected. There was a highly statistically significant relationship between nomophobia severity and the residents' specialty, as 40% severely nomophobic residents were surgeons and 58.3% of them were gynecologists and obstetricians. Conclusion Prevalence of nomophobia was 100% among medical residents in Menoufia University Hospitals. Approximately half of the studied residents who had a poor doctor–patient relationships had severe nomophobia. Specialty of medical residents had effect on nomophobia severity.

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