Prevalence of internet use and Internet Addiction Disorder among Medical Students: a case from low income country
Prolonged use of internet caused a series of problems such as internet dependence, problematic internet use, compulsive internet use, internet abuse and Internet addiction disorder (IAD), This has aroused attentions of researchers all over the world, with IAD being formally recognized as a mental disorder.
The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence and risk of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) and the associated predictive factors amongst medical students in Karachi, Pakistan This was a prospective study.
METHODS:
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 412 students at different medical colleges in Karachi.
For gathering data a questionnaire was used. For measuring internet addiction the Internet AddictionTest tool was applied. This test was developed by Yung (1998). Young defined 20-39 points as an average user, 40-69 points as a possible or intermittent user, and more than 70 points as an addicted user. The subjects’ psychological well-being were assessed by self-reporting questionaire-20 (SRQ20).
RESULTS:
Internet Addiction test showed that 74% of the sample could be classified as average internet users, 24% as problem over-users and 2% as addicted to the internet. The score of psychological morbidity was higher in internet addicted or problem over-users as compare to average user (p value<0.001).over-users and addicts spending increasingly more time in online activities, being more socially anxious, and gaining greater support from internet social networks (p value=0.003) and online chatting (p value=0.01) than average internet users.
CONCLUSIONS:
Internet addiction is prevalence among students and Key health messages and interventions to reduce stress and anxiety among students may help in curtailing the burden of this disease which has serious adverse consequences.