Assessment of Selfie-Taking Behaviour and Selfitis among UndergraduateMedical Students at a Tertiary Care Medical College in Western Uttar Pradesh,India: A Cross-Sectional Study
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Abstract
Background: The widespread adoption of smartphone technology and social media platforms has given
rise to the global phenomenon of selfie-taking, which has occasionally been associated with physically
hazardous practices and documented selfie-related injuries and deaths worldwide. The present study
did not directly assess such hazardous practices; instead, it examined the prevalence of selfie-taking
and a related compulsive pattern termed selfitis, measured using the validated selfitis behaviour scale
(SBS), among undergraduate medical students — a population with high smartphone ownership in
whom this behaviour remains understudied in India.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and patterns of selfie-taking behaviour; to classify selfie-taking
participants according to the SBS into normal, borderline, acute, and chronic categories; and to examine
the association between sex and SBS classification among undergraduate MBBS students.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 MBBS students at a tertiary care
medical college in Western Uttar Pradesh, India, selected by stratified proportionate random sampling
across all five academic years. Data were collected using a pre-designed, pre-tested, semi-structured
questionnaire together with the validated 20-item SBS. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square test
were computed using IBM SPSS version 25.0.
Results: The mean age of participants was 22.4 ± 1.8 years, and 58.0% were male. The overall prevalence
of selfie-taking was 78.9% (n = 276). Among selfie-takers, 43.8% took selfies only on special occasions,
38.1% weekly, and 18.1% daily; among daily takers, 60.0% captured 1–4 selfies per day, and 80.0% did
not post selfies on social media daily. On the SBS, 53.2% of selfie-takers were classified as borderline
selfitis, 18.1% as acute selfitis, and 11.6% as chronic selfitis, with a statistically significant difference in
SBS classification by sex (χ² = 8.42, df = 3, p = 0.038).
Conclusion: Selfie-taking is highly prevalent among undergraduate medical students in this region, and
a clinically meaningful proportion demonstrate borderline-to-chronic selfitis behaviour as measured
by the SBS, with a difference observed by sex. Despite a high frequency of selfie-taking, a pattern of
selective rather than habitual social media sharing was observed. As this study did not directly assess
physically hazardous selfie practices, its findings should be interpreted as pertaining specifically to
selfitis behaviour rather than to the risk of selfie-related physical injury. Digital health literacy initiatives
within the medical curriculum may be a reasonable area for further exploration.
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