Interrelations of Situational Vertigo, Smartphone Use, Sleep Duration, and Headache Among College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between situational vertigo, smartphoneuse, sleep duration, and headaches among college students.
Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design and survey methodology were used. A totalof approximately 55,000 students from three public and three private universities were considered for participation.A nonproportional stratified sampling method was used to target a sample size of 395 studentsper university. Data were collected using the Situational Vertigo Questionnaire (SVQ), which includesquestions about sociodemographic factors, smoking habits, electronics usage, working hours, housekeepingactivities, sleep duration, and headaches. The SVQ was translated to Arabic and validated. The statisticalanalysis included descriptive statistics, linear regression, and Pearson's correlation coefficient.
Results: This study included 1,600 participants with a mean age of 26.58 years. Significant correlationsbetween the SVQ score and older age, female sex, and smoking were found. The strongest correlationwas between the SVQ score and sleep duration (r = -0.84), indicating that a shorter sleepduration is associated with a higher incidence of situational vertigo. Smartphone use was positivelycorrelated with the SVQ score (r = 0.67) and negatively correlated with sleep duration (r = -0.74).Additionally, headaches were associated with higher SVQ scores (r = 0.24).
Conclusion: We identified significant associations between situational vertigo and smartphone use,sleep duration, and headaches among college students. Female sex, older age, and smoking werealso associated with higher susceptibility to vertigo. These findings suggest that excessive smartphoneuse may lead to sleep disturbances, which contribute to vertigo. Increased awareness of these relationshipscan inform the development of preventive measures and counseling strategies for studentson college campuses and aid health care providers in managing patients with vertigo.