Effect of using social media on family interaction of operational students studying in Qom University of medical science

Backgrounds: Today, social media has become one of the most important communicative tools in society and the world. Since there is no precise information about how university students use these social media and how it affects their relation with family, this study has aimed to investigate the effect of using social media on condition of family interaction of operational students studying in Qom University of medical science.Method: In this cross-sectional study, 343 students of Qom University of medical science have selected by multistage sampling. Data were gathered by demographic questionnaire and valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire about family interaction. Data were analyzed by SPSS software, central indices of description, t-test, ANOVA and Spearman correlation coefficient (by less than 0.05 significant level).Results: 76.1% of samples included girls, 81, 6% single, and 34.7% of samples lived in dormitory. 89.7% of university students were members of social media among whom 64.9% used social media from 1 to 6 hours per day. Mean and standard deviation of family interactions was 29.76 19.38. T-test showed significant difference in mean of family interaction score in terms of matrimony condition and educational level (P<0.05). This test showed that the family interaction of university students being member of social media significantly was less than others (P=0.006). Spearman correlation coefficient showed that there is significant and inverse correlation between the mean of family interaction score and hours of using social media (P<0.001, r=-0.347).Conclusion: Data showed that unfortunately, the amount of using social media among university students exceeds the prediction and intermediary programs are needed. According to this fact that there is inverse correlation between mean of family interaction and hours of using social media, this issue should be attended by educational programmers.