RESUMEN
Background: Use of different social media platforms has increased radically over the past decade, emerging as an important part of adolescents and young people's everyday life. This might exert potential adverse effects on sleep quality and daytime performance of young adults. Aim of Study: To assess the relation between use of social media platforms and sleep quality among public secondary school students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 961 students in Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. Students were asked to fill in a structured interview questionnaire covering personal data, pattern of social media use, sleep quality using The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and their mental health status using the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21). Results: Students' ages ranged from 15 to 20 years with a mean age of 16.7 ± 2.1 years old. A total of 570 (59.3%) students were females. Tiktok (80%), Snapchat (77.9%), Instagram (63.8%) and YouTube (58.8%) were the most reported platforms used. Regarding their sleep quality, 34.7% of students were poor sleepers. TikTok use (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.01-1.77), hours spent on social media (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.16-1.37) and having moderate to severe depressive symptoms (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.19-2.40) were significant independent predictors of poor sleep among the studied sample. Conclusion: The present study emphasized the association between prolonged use of social media and poor sleep quality among Saudi adolescents. Awareness and behavioral change strategies and activities concerning the drawbacks of poor sleep and proper use of social media are urgently called for to control mental and physical health consequences of poor sleep and social media addiction.
RESUMEN
Choosing a future medical speciality is considered one of the most critical challenges for undergraduate students worldwide. The present study assessed the influences and factors related to medical students career choices in Saudi Arabia. The study was designed in a cross-sectional manner to collect data from all undergraduate medical students and interns in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 5 months, starting from September 2021 and ending in January 2022. The questionnaire was completed by 1725 medical students and interns aged 18 to 30 with a mean age of 24.2â ±â 4.6 years, and 64.6% were females. In all, 50.4% of respondents reported that they had received advice from others on their chosen speciality, and 89% of respondents indicated that they were interested in working in a specialized field after graduation. The most influencing factors for choosing medical specialities are job safety, creative ability, dealing with a variety of patients and monthly income (69.6%, 63.7%, 62.4%, 58.9%), respectively. Additionally, the study showed that gender plays a significant role (Pâ =â .001) for medical students and interns in their choice of speciality, whereas pediatrics was the top choice for female students (12%), and medicine was the most popular choice for male students (14.1%). A student's lower grade point average, the lower average monthly income of their family, lack of working relative in the healthcare field and absence of advice about future specialities are all significant predictors for stopping specialities endeavor. Our study concluded that students career choices depend on different factors, including gender based preferences and that their specialized preferences did not change considerably prior to or after graduation. Further studies are required to analyze the factors influencing student and intern speciality preferences in their early clinical and career years.