Global research evidence on nomophobia during 2008-2022: a bibliometric analysis and review

ABSTRACT

Nomophobia, often known as a 21st-century disorder, is a recent condition that has received considerable attention, with numerous studies conducted to better understand it since it was first introduced in 2008. To better understand the present research status and prospects to assist practitioners, policymakers, and funding agencies in protecting the population from nomophobia-related harm, a bibliometric study of nomophobia-related publications was conducted. We used Scopus and dimensions.ai to perform a search between 2008 and 2022. The HistCite, R software, and VOSviewer were used to analyze the data and extract relevant keywords indexed in medical databases using mesh heading phrases. Between January 2008 and April 2022, 1,781 papers, 30 datasets, two grants, six patents, four clinical trials, and five policy documents were identified. The bulk of the articles included in this review were published after 2017 with the majority written in English. Most of the research focuses on determining the prevalence of nomophobia in various populational groups, such as students, clinical samples, and the general adult population. Several studies examined the possible association between nomophobia symptoms and other psychiatric or physical health issues, such as changes in sleep, learning and attention, academic performance, coping strategies, etc. The current body of research knowledge of nomophobia in the main includes epidemiologic and diagnostic effort that has provided mixed results regarding its assessment and prevalence rates, and appreciable data on its treatment and prevention are lacking.

KEYWORDS:

• Addiction
• anxiety
• fear of missing out
• idisorder
• nomophobia
• smartphone

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available immediately upon request from the corresponding author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

This study gathered data from public databases, thus did not require ethical approval.

Contributions

Conceptualization, HJ and FFR; Methodology, HJ; Software, HJ; Validation, FFR; Formal Analysis, HJ; Investigation, HJ and FFR; Resources, HJ; Data Curation, HJ; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, FFR and HJ; Writing – Review & Editing, SRP, ASB, MVV; Visualization, HJ; Supervision, HJ; Project Administration, HJ; Funding Acquisition, Not applicable.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.