Relationship between Age, Gender, Mobile Phone Usage and some Cognitive Functions among the Nigerian Students

Abstract

Introduction: Advanced mobile technology especially mobile phones provide useful and convenient means for individuals to communicate and access the internet anytime and anywhere. However, electromagnetic field (EMF) energy from the mobile phones has been mentioned to hamper neuronal activity and cognitive function in humans. Aim: This research was therefore undertaken to determine the relationship between age, gender, mobile phone usage and some cognitive functions among the Nigerian students. Methodology: This study used datafrom500 students randomly selected from populations in University of Port-Harcourt. Different ages specified by the respondents through structural. Questionnaires were used. Data obtained from the retrieved questionnaire were analyzed using multiple STATGRAPHICS for the descriptive statistics. While SPSS (IBM Amos V21.0.0, USA) was used for the inferential statistics. Results: The results revealed that, there was no significant association between age and smartphone ownership (P>0.05). However, for gender, there were significant distributional differences in males (38.5%) and females (29.4%) (P=0.022), as well as stress caused by phone usage (males=76.8%; females=89.7). Correlations of cognitive function variables revealed significant relationship between all the cognitive functional variables. Conclusion: Distraction was found to have a significant relationship with stress (P=0.033). Therefore attachment to use of smart phone among youths should be advisably minimized.