[01] Ng Enyi Charissa, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Prasila a/p Balakrishnan, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Harish a/l Elang Gopalan, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Caleb Su Kar Hong, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [05] Ashwene a/p Chandrakumar, Faculty of Medicine, Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

Gadget is defined as a transportable electronic device and has various effects due to its dependency among the undergraduates. The degree of dependence plays an important role which endangers the health and lifestyle of the students indirectly affecting both quantity and quality of being a doctor among the medical students. This study was conducted to assess the gadget dependency among medical students and its effect on health. This was a cross sectional study conducted from June 2021 to July 2021 in Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM). An electronic survey through Google forms was distributed to the students from MBBS Sem 1 to Sem 10 and a total of 156 responses were collected. The questionnaire consisted of 3 parts including sociodemographic data, 12 questions regarding the perceived social support among the students, 27 questions on the use of the technological gadgets, gadgets dependency among participants, the effect on health of the participants and the safety measures while using gadgets. To analyse the data, statistical tests (Unpaired t test, ANOVA, correlation and simple logistic regression) were done by using Epi Info version 7.2. Findings revealed that 63.46% from 156 participants had more than 6 hours of time on gadgets. Study was the main purpose for students using gadgets (96.8%) followed by entertainment purposes (95.51%) and communication purposes (92.3%). Among 156 participants, 66.67% of them had high perceived social support. There was significant association between age, ethnicity and academic semester with gadget dependency. This study showed there was a negative, little if any correlation between perceived social support and gadget dependency. 74.4% of participants agreed that survival is difficult without technology gadgets and 83.3% of the participants agreed that IT education is mandatory for higher education. Nearly 54.5% of the participants had defective vision, 58.4% experienced physical discomfort and 59.6% felt ill and tired after long use of gadgets. Overall, the gadget dependency among students in MUCM was high but the effect on health was not significant.

Gadget, Dependency, Effect, Health, Medical Student, Cross Sectional Study, Malaysia

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