A STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE ON ILL EFFECTS OF CELL PHONES AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN SELECTED URBAN COMMUNITY OF JAIPUR WITH A VIEW TO DEVELOP AN INFORMATION BOOKLET ON PREVENTION OF ILL EFFECTS OF CELL PHONES

Abstract

Introduction: Cell phones are a vast improvement over the telecommunications technology of the past, and are
daily becoming a fixture of modern life cell phones have become a necessity for many people throughout the
world. The ability to keep in touch with family, business associates, and access to email are only a few of the
reasons for the increasing importance of cell phones. The aim of study was to assess the level of knowledge on ill
effects of cell phones among adolescents. To find out the association between knowledge of adolescents regarding
ill effects of cell phones and selected demographical variables such as age, gender, education use and source of
information regarding ill effects of cell phone. To develop and distribute an information booklet regarding
prevention of ill effects of cell phones among adolescents.
Methods: Non experimental descriptive survey design, a descriptive survey approach was used to find out the
knowledge of ill effects of cell phones among adolescents. A descriptive survey approach was used for the study.
The sample consisting of 100 adolescents. They were chosen by non probability convenient sampling technique.
The study was conducted at urban community of Jaipur. The data was collected after the distribution of
Information Booklet (IB)by a structured questionnaire.
Results: The finding show that majority of subjects were in the age group of adolescents 50(50%) were belongs to
17-19 years, 32(32%) were in the age group of 14-19 years, and 18(18%) of the subjects were belongs to 10-13
years. Gender wise distribution of the subjects showed that majority 60 (60%) were male and 40 (40%) were
female. In relation to the education majority of the subjects 56(56%) were from Secondary and above, 14(14%)
were from primary and middle school and 30(30%) were Secondary school. Majority 66(66%) adolescents got
information through mass media, 6 (6%) were got information through friends, 0(0%) were got information
through other sources &about 18 (28%) did not get any information on ill effects of cell phones and none of the
samples got any information from health professionals. the level of knowledge of adolescent, nearly half of the
adolescents 48 (48%) had average knowledge, around 46 (46%) had poor knowledge, and only 6 (6%) had good
knowledge regarding the ill effect of cell phone. None of them had very good knowledge. Area wise mean score
percentage on knowledge of adolescents regarding ill effects of cell phone reveals that highest mean percentage
(55.20%) was found in the area of knowledge regarding “basic concepts of cell phones” with mean± SD of
2.76±0.77. The mean percentage of knowledge score in the area of “effects of cell phones” was 35.50 % with
mean±SD of 4.26±2.60. In the area of “precautions for cell phone usage” the mean percentage was 39.50 with an
area wise mean ± SD of 3.16±1.82. Analysis revealed that out of 25 maximum attainable score the total mean
percentage 40.72% mean ± SD of 10.18 ± 4.40.That the chi square values of demographic variables like age,
education and source of information regarding ill effects of cell phones were significant at 0.05 level of
significance. Thus it is concluded that there was significant association between knowledge score and the selected
demographic variable such as age, education and source of information regarding ill effects of cell phones.
Conclusion: The study revealed that the Information Booklet was found to be an effective strategy for providing
information on prevention of ill effects of cell phones for improving the knowledge of adolescents.