The study found that the risk of obesity increases by 43 per cent if a smartphone was used for five or more hours a day, as participating students were twice as likely to drink more sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, snacks and have decreased physical activities.
According to researchers, 26 per cent of the students who were overweight and 4.6 per cent who were obese spent more than five hours using their device.
Spending too much time using the smartphone facilitates sedentary behaviours, reduces the time of physical activity, which increases the risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease and different types of cancer, the study said.