Abstract
With the rapid evolution of technology and social media, there has been a growing trend of social media addiction among health care professionals and this could have negative consequences on their mental health. This study was done to assess the relationship between social media addiction and; (i) psychological distress; (ii) sleep quality; and (iii) loneliness among health care professional in Saudi Arabia. This cross sectional study used an electronic questionnaire that was distributed through social media. The questionnaire included questions related to the measurement of demographics in terms of social media addiction, sleep quality, psychological distress, and loneliness. A total of 773 health care students or practitioners from different cities in Saudi Arabia completed the questionnaires. The participants score of psychological distress was directly associated with social media addiction (p<0.001), with R-squared of 0.189. There was an inverse relationship between social media addiction and sleep quality (p<0.001). There was strong positive association between social media addiction and emotional loneliness (p=0.006, R-squared=0.01). Our study suggests social media addiction is strongly associated with psychological distress, sleep quality and loneliness.