Network analysis of depression and anxiety symptoms and their associations with mobile phone addiction among Chinese medical students during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

Mar 25, 2024SSM - population health

Connections between depression, anxiety, and mobile phone addiction in Chinese medical students near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Abstract

A total of 553 medical students were examined for associations between depression, anxiety symptoms, and mobile phone addiction.

Central symptoms in the depression and anxiety network included 'uncontrollable worry', 'restlessness', and 'nervousness'.
'Restlessness' and 'motor' symptoms served as key links between depression and anxiety.
'Concentration', 'anhedonia', and 'sleep' were found to have strong associations with mobile phone addiction.
Interventions for medical students with comorbid depression and anxiety could target symptoms like 'uncontrollable worry', 'restlessness', and 'nervousness'.
Depressive symptoms may be more significant than anxiety symptoms in the context of mobile phone addiction among medical students.

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Network analysis provides a novel approach to discovering associations between mental disorders at the symptom level. This study aimed to examine the characteristics of the network of depression and anxiety symptoms and their associations with mobile phone addiction (MPA) among Chinese medical students during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 553 medical students were included. Depression and anxiety symptoms and MPA were measured by the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), respectively. Central and bridge symptoms were identified with centrality indices and bridge centrality indices. Network stability was examined using the case-dropping procedure. "Uncontrollable worry", "restlessness" and "nervousness" were the central symptoms in the depression and anxiety network. "Restlessness" and "motor" were the most central bridge symptoms linking depression and anxiety. "Concentration", "anhedonia" and "sleep" were most strongly associated with MPA. "Uncontrollable worry", "restlessness", "nervousness," and "motor" may be the symptoms for interventions to target in medical students with comorbid depression and anxiety. From a network perspective, depressive symptoms may be more important than anxiety symptoms in medical students with MPA.

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Network analysis of depression and anxiety symptoms and their associations with mobile phone addiction among Chinese medical students during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

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