Smartphone and Facebook Use: Correlates of Self-Perceived Academic Performance Among Medical Students in Peru

• Andrea M. Costa, Institute of Geology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

  Institute of Geology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

  Author

The study had the objective of determining the association between the use of Smartphone and Facebook with the self-perception of academic performance in students of a Faculty of Human Medicine in the Peruvian mountains. A prospective analytical cross-sectional study was carried out. We worked with medical students from the Continental University in Huancayo-Peru and used a survey to measure the use of Smartphones and Facebook, as well as the perception of whether these improved academic performance. Bi- and multivariate statistics were performed, using generalized linear models and with a value of p < 0.05 as statistically significant. 173 students were surveyed, 61% (106) were women and the median age was 21 years (interquartile range: 19-22 years). 76% (131) stated that the Smartphone improved their academic performance. This was positively related in the bivariate analysis to the number of Smartphones , whether it had training applications and whether it used medical applications; and negatively with hours used the Smartphone per week, if you have internet on the Smartphone , if you use internet on the Smartphone , the frequency of using Facebook, the frequency in which you wrote on Facebook profiles and the number of contacts on Facebook ( all with p values ​​< 0.05). In the adjusted multivariate, the average hours spent using the Smartphone per week was negatively associated with the perception of improved academic performance (PRa: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.97-0.99). The more hours of smartphone use per week, the students perceive that this worsens their academic performance. This should be studied to quantify the real decrease in academic performance.

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