Mobile Phone Dependence among Adolescents; Can We Utilize Mobile Phone as a Therapeutic Approach?

Dear Sir

We read with great interest the article by NiKhita et al., who investigated the mobile phone dependence in a society of adolescent students and revealed the high prevalence of this problem among their study population [1]. Despite of widespread use of mobile phone technology, there are scarce investigations which has been performed regarding mobile phone problematic use and dependency [2]. As the author mentioned, this issue has become an emerging public health problem. Previous studies revealed that this behaviour was associated with several other negative factors including smoking tobacco, excessive alcohol consumption, low impulse control, depression, and school failure [3,4]. Thus, it is essential to identify a new model of comprehensive adolescent health care and moreover design and implementing certain programs in schools, based on their interest and trends. The authors truly found that most of the participant seek the way of overcoming the feeling of inferiority, helplessness, guilt, anxiety and depression in their mobile phones. So that, these mobile phone itself, can play the key role for educational purposes in order to make this dependence on the right track.

There are many examples of the successful implementation of gamification in education. Using Video Game-Based Education revealed that students who played video games were more engaged with their homework than when working with traditional courses [5]. Furthermore, surveys showed that using web-based education and mobile application are good ways of teaching. For example, Memrise.com is a website that designed for helping people to learn a foreign language. Besides, the mobile application for using on cell phone has been provided in this web site in order to learn words in enjoyable courses and earn points by correct answers to compete with your friends and contacts [6]. Mobile phone messaging interventions and what called now mHealth interventions are the other examples that are currently being implemented in chronic disease management and may provide benefit in supporting the self-management of these teenagers and young adult [7].

During past decades, multimedia and social networking have progressed dramatically. On the other hand, by the growing interest of young generation to use digital devices such as mobile phones we should target our interventional programs based on their interests in order to overcome the side effects of modern technologies. Further investigations are needed to achieve evidenced based educational programs in the management of Mobile Phone Dependence.

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