Association of mobile usage with Depression Disorder.

Objective: To evaluate the association of mobile usage with depression disorder. Study Design: Case Control study. Setting: Private medical university and schools of Karachi. Period: Jan 2022 to June 2022. Methods: Mobile phone user depression level was assess with the help of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Score. Statistical analysis was done by version 25 SPSS and all data was expressed using mean and standard deviation. Results: Out of 258 participants, 172(66.7%) were male and 86(33.33%) female with male to female ratio of 2:1 with mean 32.85±10.85 years. Most of the participants were single 231(89.5%) cases and followed by married 27(10.5%) cases. The participants were student 159(61.6%) cases and followed by house hold 26(10.1%) cases, jobless 7(2.7%) cases and shop keeper 6(2.3%) cases. According to language majority participants were sindhi 159(61.6%) cases and followed by balochi 60(23.3%) cases, pashto 13(5%) cases, panjabi 7 (2.7%) and Urdu 6(2.3%) cases. Majority of the participants 150(58.1%) were used more than 3 hours, followed by 1 to hours 46(17.8%) and 2 to 3 hours 42(16.3%) and 20(7.8%) used were less than one hour (Table-I and II). Majority of the participants suffering the mild depression observed in 168(65.1%) due to mobile used, followed by moderate depression in 20(7.8%). Conclusion: Our study concludes that excessive mobile phone usage is associated with increased anxiety, stress, and mild depression symptoms.