Impact of Addictive Use of Cell Phones in Medical University Students Developing Distortion of Skills in Practical Life in Pakistan

Abstract

The current study explored the effect of addictive smartphone use on medical university students in Pakistan regarding their clinical practical skills self-efficacy, by investigating daily cognitive failures and face-to-face communication skills as mediators, and digital self-regulation as a moderator. The quantitative cross-sectional design was used to analyze the data of 550 MBBS students using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4. This study revealed a significant correlation between addictive smartphone use and cognitive failure, as well as a significant decrease in communication skills and clinical practical skills self-efficacy. Communication skills had a positive impact on self-efficacy, while cognitive failures had a negative impact. The mediation effect was also found to be significant and Digital self-regulation reduced the adverse effect of addictive smartphone use on cognitive failures. The model accounted for 52.2% of the variance in clinical practical skills self-efficacy and had a significant predictive capacity for medical education based on the CVPAT.