Volume 26, Issue 125, July 2022

The effect of social media addiction on psychological distress, sleep quality and loneliness among health care professional in Saudi Arabia

Mona Talal Rajeh¹, Khalid Talal Aboalshamat², Mahmoud Abdulrahman Mahmoud³, Amal Mohammmad Badawoud^4♦, Abdullah Muhammad Alzhrani⁵, Ismail Mahmoud Abdouh⁶, Hatim Matooq Badri⁷, Baraa Sami Quronfulah⁸

¹Department of Dental Public Health, King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Dentistry, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
²Preventive Dentistry Department, College of Dentistry, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
³College of Medicine, Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⁴Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⁵Department of Occupation Health, College ofPublic Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
⁶Department of Oral Basic and Clinical Sciences, College of Dentistry, Taibah University, Al Madinah Al Munawara, Saudi Arabia
⁷Department of Environmental Health, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
⁸Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

With the rapid evolution of technology and social media, there has been a growing trend of social media addiction among health care professionals and this could have negative consequences on their mental health. This study was done to assess the relationship between social media addiction and; (i) psychological distress; (ii) sleep quality; and (iii) loneliness among health care professional in Saudi Arabia. This cross sectional study used an electronic questionnaire that was distributed through social media. The questionnaire included questions related to the measurement of demographics in terms of social media addiction, sleep quality, psychological distress, and loneliness. A total of 773 health care students or practitioners from different cities in Saudi Arabia completed the questionnaires. The participants score of psychological distress was directly associated with social media addiction (p<0.001), with R-squared of 0.189. There was an inverse relationship between social media addiction and sleep quality (p<0.001). There was strong positive association between social media addiction and emotional loneliness (p=0.006, R-squared=0.01). Our study suggests social media addiction is strongly associated with psychological distress, sleep quality and loneliness.

Keywords: Addiction; social media; psychological distress; loneliness; sleep quality.

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms299e2379

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i125/ms299e2379

Published: 24 July 2022