Citation

Pugliese BJ, Barton BK. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2022; 90: 15-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trf.2022.08.004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Falls and severe head injuries have been increasingly associated with the use of smartphones while walking. A growing body of academic research identifies cognitive, perceptual, and motor deficits caused by smartphone use while walking. Despite the dangers associated with smartphone use while walking, the true prevalence can be challenging to assess.To better address the growing injury risk related to smartphone-induced distraction, we have built a smartphone-based data collection tool to assess smartphone use frequency while walking. In the current study, 35 participants installed the data collection app on their Android smartphones. On average, the application collected 520 data points per day. The application also indicated participants walked 12% of their day, and 49% of their time walking included smartphone use. The current study demonstrates the prevalence of smartphone-induced distraction while walking and smartphone applications' potential efficacy to collect behavioral data.

Language: en

Keywords

Distraction; Epidemiology; Injury; Observational method; Smartphone