Fatores associados à dependência de smartphone: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Improving our knowledge of what has been referred to as smartphone addiction (SA) is extremely important for clinical practice. In the past 10 years, an increasing body of clinical and epidemiological evidence has been produced in several countries. These studies point to sociodemographic factors, life habits, psychiatric disorders, and personality traits in association with SA. However, no review studies have been conducted to synthesize the findings. The objective of this study was to review the literature currently available on factors associated with SA. A systematic literature review was carried out by searching the PubMed and SciELO databases. We focused on papers published in the last 10 years; literature reviews, pre-clinical studies and expert opinions were excluded. In the final phase, 42 articles were selected. The sociodemographic factors associated with SA were female sex, age between 18 and 25 years and high household income. The associated lifestyle habits were nocturnal chronotype, reduced physical activity and sedentary lifestyle. The contents most strongly associated with SA were social networks. The dependency syndromes most strongly associated with SA were alcohol and technological addictions. The psychiatric disorders/symptoms associated were depressive and anxiety disorders, stress and insomnia. Finally, the associated personality traits were high impulsiveness, high aggressiveness, low self-esteem, type A personality and multitasking. There is evidence pointing to similarities in the epidemiological data found for SA and for other dependencies. More studies are needed to deepen our knowledge of this topic.