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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Aug 4.
Published in final edited form as: J Addict Med. 2019 Jul-Aug;13(4):279–286. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000494

TABLE 3.

Mobile Phone Use Patterns (N = 206)

Variable %(n)
Mobile phone ownership 86% (177)
 Basic cell phone 20% (42)
 Smart phone 66% (135)
Features used on mobile phone (n = 206)
 Text messaging 96% (169)
 Internet 81% (143)
 Camera 79% (139)
 Video 64% (114)
 Email 61% (107)
 Social media 61% (108)
Rate of text messaging (n = 206)
 Daily 77% (137)
 >1/week 11% (22)
 x1/week 5% (10)
 x1/month 2% (5)
 x1/few months 3% (7)
 Never 1% (24)
Sending or receiving text messages (n = 206)
 Very much’ or ‘somewhat’ comfortable sending TM 82% (169)
 Very much’ or ‘somewhat’ concerned about privacy of TM 51% (105)
Preferred mode of contact TM vs Phone call (n = 206)
 TM 21% (44)
 Phone call 39% (81)
 Either 39% (81)
TM payment plan (n = 206)
 Flat fee for unlimited TM 83% (171)
 Flat fee for limited TM 8% (17)
 Pay-per-TM 4% (8)
Smart phone applications (n = 135) 65% (135)
 Entertainment (eg, music, video, youtube) 45.92% (62)
 Games (eg, candy crush, casino, chess) 34.81% (47)
 Social media (eg, facebook, instagram, twitter) 25.2% (34)
 Communication (eg, viber, skype, whatsapp) 10.37% (14)
 Maps/GPS (eg, metro map) 8.15% (11)
 Financial (eg, banking, tax rabbit, Indeed, paypal) 6.66% (9)
 Weather 5.92% (8)
 Educational (eg, encyclopedia, lumosity) 3.7% (5)
 News (eg, New York Times, CNN, local news) 3.7% (5)
 Retail (eg, ebay, food) 3.7% (5)
 Lifestyle (eg, tinder, happn) 2.22% (3)
 Recovery applications (eg, AA or NA, cleantime counter) 0.74% (1)
 Health applications (eg, WebMD) 0.74% (1)
Barriers to phone ownership, mean (SD)
 Phones owned in the last year 3.3 (2.98)
 Phone numbers in the last year 2.6 (2.36)
Reasons for ≥1 phone(s) or phone number(s) in the last year (n = 158)
 Lost 63% (99)
 Stolen 27% (43)
 Hardware damage 21% (33)
 Upgraded phone to a newer model 11% (17)
 Sold for money 7% (11)
 Cost 6% (10)
 Given away (donated to family or friends) 3% (5)
 Incarceration or arrest 2% (3)
Phone disconnected or off for more than a few hours in one day (n = 206)
 >1/day 1% (2)
 Daily 5% (11)
 >1/week 4% (8)
 x1/week 10% (21)
 x1/month 14% (28)
 x1/few months 19% (39)
 Never 47% (97)