THE IMPACT OF SMARTPHONE ADDICTION ON EMPATHY AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS

Smartphone addiction has become an increasing significant public health issue. This study has investigated the relationship between smartphone addiction, and empathy levels, and demographic variables among medical students. As a cross-sectional study, the research has been conducted with 261 medical students educating in İnönü University Medical Faculty between 21.03.2022-31.03.2022. Participants completed a survey delivered to them via Google Forms, including questions about demographic characteristics, reasons for phone use, as well as the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). Analyses were performed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0. The students' average SAS score was 90.39±23.39, and the mean TEQ score was 52.59 ± 6.66. Approximately 33.7% of participants scored above 50% on the SAS. Smartphones were used most often to listen to music (42.5%) and least often to play games (27%). Students with higher social media use and female students scores were higher on the SAS when compared to others (p