The Relationship between Physical Activity and Smart Phone Use in University Students

Abstract

Smartphone addiction and physical inactivity are often a major public health problem across the world. This research was aimed to determine the smartphone addiction status, physical activity levels and related factors of university students. Using convenience sampling, university students in Isparta/Turkey completed two questionnaires in Spring semester assessing smartphone addiction and physical activity levels. A total of 147 participants attended in this study. The participants included in the scope of the research; the questionnaire including the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Smartphone Addiction Questionnaire, which were considered to be related to socio-demographic characteristics, smartphone use and physical activity habits were applied under direct observation. The physical activity for males was higher than females. There was a significant relationship between age and smart phone use. Whereas the age of the participants increased, a decrease in the number of smartphone usage was observed. The differences of between educational groups are related to the lower level of smartphone addiction of the graduate students compared to the associate degree students. Finally, there was no significant difference between the level of physical activity and the score of smartphone usage as the main aim of this study.