Association of social media addiction and fear of missing out with phubbing behaviour among medical students in Rawalpindi: a cross sectional analytical study

Abstract Objectives To determine the effect of social media addiction and fear of missing out on phubbing behavior among medical students in Rawalpindi. Study design Analytical cross-sectional. Place and duration of study At 3 medical colleges of Rawalpindi from October 2023 to March 2024. Methodology The study was conducted on 380 medical students of both genders ranging from age 18–25 years. A well-structured validated questionnaire comprising of four sections, was used. The initial part comprised of demographic information. The second part consists of Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), third part includes FoMO scale, fourth part consists of Phubbing Scale. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 27. Chi square test and Pearson correlation was applied to find association between levels of SMA & FoMO and its impact on phubbing behavior. A binary logistic regression was applied to determine the probability of dependent variable (phubbing behavior) using predictor variables (SMA & FoMO). Results Among pre-clinical students, 152 (65.8%) out of 231 had social media addiction, whereas only 34 (22.8%) out of 149 were affected in clinical group. Similarly, 146 (63.2%) students in pre-clinical years and 54 (36.2%) in clinical years depicted phubbing behavior. A significant association (p < 0.001) was found between social media addiction and phubbing behavior. FoMO was also present among the medical students but not found statistically significant with phubbing behavior (p = 0.112). Conclusion Severe social media addiction was significantly associated with phubbing behaviour whereas FoMO although present among medical students was not found to be significantly associated with phubbing behaviour.