Factors Associated with Smartphone Use among Students in Community Health Department from a University in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Objective of this study was to examine factors associated with smartphone use among students studying in community health department of a university in northern Thailand. The samples were 280 students randomly selected using simple random sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher with item objective congruence index (IOC) of 0.836. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages and Chi-square statistics.

The results showed that most of the samples were female (88.2%), were under 20 years old (93.2%), studied in the community health program (80.0%), had monthly allowance of less than 5,000 Baht (51.4%), had GPA of 3.01-3.50 (47.1%), owned and used smartphones (41.8%), used Android operating system for their smartphones (57.1%), used Advanced Info Service (AIS) for their phone network providers (50.4%), used internet 10-15 hours/day (42.5%), had only one smartphone (78.6%), and had no underlying illness (92.5%). The samples’ knowledge on the smartphone use was at a high level (95.7%) while their attitudes on smartphone selection and impacts from smartphone use were at a moderate level (52.9% and 46.4%, respectively). Association analyses showed that monthly allowance, GPA, smartphone brand, their smartphone operating system, frequency of smartphone use, number of smartphones owned, underlying illness, and their attitudes toward smartphone use had a positive significant relationship with smartphone use (p-value ≤ 0.05). However, gender, age, programs studied, smartphone usage, network used for their smartphones, knowledge on the smartphone use, and impacts on smartphone use had no significant association with their smartphone selection.