Abstract
Background: During the past 10 years, the rapid development of social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat, games and so on has caused several profound changes in the way people communicate and interact. SNSs are often defined as Web-based platforms that allow individuals to create their own personal profile and build a network of connections with other users. Today they have more than one billion active users, and, it is clear that during the past 10 years, online social networking has caused significant changes in the way people communicate and interact, affecting their mental and psychological health
Aim: to assess social media utilization and its impact on mental health among medical college students in Abha city.
Methodology: A cross sectional approach was used targeting college of medicine students in Abha city. Data were collected using structured questionnaire which was developed by the researchers after intensive literature review and expert consultation. The questionnaire was uploaded online using social media platforms by the researchers and their relatives and friends to be filled out by the medical student population in Abha city.
Results: The study included 311 students whose ages ranged from 17 to 29 years old with mean age of 22.8 +/- 2.1 years. Females were 64.6% of the participants and 90.7% of the students were not married. About 28.6% of the students were in the preclinical grades and 14.5% were interns. Those who use social media platforms for less than one hour daily were 2.6% of the students while 50.5% use it for 6 hours daily. As for used social media platforms. Snap chat and Twitter were the most used. Poor mental health was detected among nearly half of the students.
Conclusions & recommendations: In conclusion, the study revealed that medical college students used social media platform intensively with reported high insomnia rate and poor mental health for half of them.