Assessment of Selfie addiction, and Selfitis among Allied Health Sciences students of a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

A selfie is a self-portrait photograph typically taken with a camera phone held in hand or supported by a selfie stick. Studies suggest that the level of selfie addiction among youngsters has been increasing over the years. Selfitis is the term that is being widely used to denote selfie addiction. This study aims at assessing the level of selfie addiction and various factors associated with it, and to evaluate the relationship between selfie addiction and addictive selfie habits. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the Allied Health Science students of a tertiary care hospital in Chennai. Two hundred seventy-three students were studied by convenient sampling method. A pre-tested, validated, structured and self-administered questionnaire was given, and the desired information was elicited. Chi-square test was used to test the significance (p <0.05)A total of 287 students were studied, of which 65 (22.6%) were males, and 222 (77.4%) were females. It is observed that age, year of study, the place from which they come, place of stay and father's occupation have a statistically significant relationship with selfie addiction. Most of the selfie addictive behaviours have a female preponderance. A significant portion of the youth is in the early stage of selfie addiction. Hence it is highly essential to spread awareness about the ill effects of selfie addiction among the youngsters to curb this addiction earlier.