Factors Influencing Health Impacts among Smartphone Users in New Normal Situation: A Case Study among University Students in Thailand

Abstract Background: Nowadays, smartphone users are increasing across the world. Smartphones have become a necessary thing in people's life. Using smartphones have both benefits and health effects. Therefore, this study mainly aims to develop an appropriate mobile application to be the tool for health effects and finding factors associated with a health risk from smartphone usage. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data was conducted in Thailand. The sample size was 500 university students. The Smartphone U Health mobile application was developed and shown in the Play Store and App Store. The self-administration was used for data collection throughout the Smart U Health. Data were entered and analyzed with licensed SPSS version 22. Results: The participants, including 328 females (65.6%) and 172 males (34.4%) with an average age was 20.3{+/-}1.5 years old. The average period of using smartphones was 7.9{+/-}2.0 years. The average time spent was 8.6{+/-}3.4 hours/day. The primary physical, mental, and social health effects from smartphone usage over three months were eye pain (93.8%), feeling bored (90.4%), the participants had a communication problem with other people (84.0%), respectively. In the multivariate analysis, the significant factors associated with a health risk from smartphone usage were faculty, income, using smartphones in the classroom, experience of resting their eyes before continuing. Moreover, knowledge and practice levels were significantly associated with health risk levels from smartphone usage. Conclusion: Overuse of smartphones had many health effects. The Smart U Health mobile application might be the appropriate tool to assess smartphone users' health risk levels. In the future, it may consider an intervention study to reduce health risks from smartphone usage. Keywords: Smartphone, University students, mHealth, Mobile application, Health effects