The Dose-Response Relationship Between Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Smartphone Addiction in First-Year Tehran...

Area of Science:

• Medical and Health Sciences
• Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Smartphone addiction (SA) is a growing concern among first-year university students.
• Physical activity (PA) offers numerous health benefits, but its association with SA is inconsistent across studies.
• The Iranian sociocultural context may influence the relationship between PA and SA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between physical activity and smartphone addiction among first-year students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS).

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study analyzed data from 397 first-year TUMS students.
• Smartphone addiction was assessed using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV).
• Physical activity was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ-v2), with analyses including multivariable linear regression and dose-response analysis.

Main Results:

• Sufficient moderate leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) demonstrated the strongest inverse association with SA (adjusted β = -5.04, p = 0.005).
• Trend analysis confirmed a significant relationship between LTPA levels and SA severity.
• Dose-response analysis indicated that higher PA levels correlated with lower SA, most notably at lower PA amounts.

Conclusions:

• Promoting LTPA may be a viable strategy to mitigate smartphone addiction in first-year university students.
• The findings highlight the potential role of physical activity in addressing behavioral issues like SA in academic settings.