Abstract:

Aim: Today, in the light of technological developments, smartphones have become indispensable parts of everyday life, and exposure to long-term digital screen light can cause an increase in headache prevalence. The purpose of the current study is to determine the relationship between smartphone use and headache in university students. Methods: The sample of the research consists of 200 university students (96 female, 104 male) educating in different departments. Participants assessed with the Smart Phone Addiction Scale and questionnaire -created by researchers as a result of participant literature review- including sociodemographic data form, variables related to headache, smart phone use variables. Results : The average age and average score of Smart Phone Addiction Scale of participants were 21.7 ±2.7 years, 29.2 ±11.2 respectively. Smartphone addiction scale scores according to sex were statistically significantly higher in women than in men (p = 0.03). Smartphone addiction rates were 33.7% for males and 41.7% for females. Headache severity was 4.7 points in the students who were addicted to smartphones and non-addicted were 4.2 points, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.154). There were no statistically significant differences in headache duration and frequency between the groups with and without smartphone addiction (June0.05). Conclusion: The participants in the current study had higher scores on the Smart Phone Addiction Scale than previous studies. It has been detected that; among the university students, the scores of the Smart Phone Addiction Scale were higher in women than in men and smartphone addiction has no statistically significant effect on severity, duration and frequency of headaches.