Internet Addiction and Modeling its Risk Factors in Medical Students, Iran

Abstract

Background:Today's internet is a usual and common method for identifying and fulfilling unknown practices. Internet network has been prepared rapid and comfortable access to information. Internet addiction is a new and attractive subject that has been regarded as behavior-based addiction recently.Purpose:To estimate the prevalence of internet addiction and some of the related factors among medical students, Iran.Materials and Methods:An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 426 students selected through two-stage sampling method. Yang standard internet addiction questionnaire was used for data collection. After data entry, χ2, t-test, and Pearson coefficient statistical tests were applied. 0.05 was considered as the significance level.Results:The overall prevalence of internet addiction was 10.8%, with moderate and severe internet addiction equal to 8% and 2.8%, respectively. Mean and standard deviation of Yang internet addiction score was calculated as 32.74±14.52. Internet addiction was associated with sex, marital status, father's job, rate of knowledge about computer and internet, and educational level (P<0.05). But it was not associated with the parents’ education, residential area, field of study and level, and school of education (P>0.05).Conclusion:Because internet addiction leads to wasting of the students’ leisure time and also useful time, it affects the educational situation inversely. Some measures should be taken to plan and improve the use of internet.

Evaluation of Internet Addiction and Mental Health Among Medical Sciences Students in the Southeast of Iran

“…The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by Content Validity Index (CVI = 0.78) for each item by 3 experts, and its reliability was approved using test-re-test (r = 0.88) in a 2-week interval by 20 medical sciences students and Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.87). Also, the reliability and validity of this instrument have been demonstrated in previous studies (12)(13)(14).…”

“…While the study was conducted among medical students of Guilan, IA was lower among nursing students (5). In another study, a significant relationship was not found between major and IA (20).…”

“…Also, in a study that was conducted among Turkish university students, the prevalence of IA was 7.9% (1) and in another study, the prevalence was estimated as 3.8% among male students and 20% of female students (19). According to the study conducted in Iran, the prevalence of IA was reported as 10.8% among medical students (20). This prevalence was 1.6% in Korean adolescents.…”

Relation between Internet Addiction and Educational Burnout among Students in Faculty of Health Management and Medical Informatics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences: A Cross - Sectional Study

“…The results of research conducted in the United States show that the use of the Internet among young people is higher than any other age group (4). Several countries in Asia, especially China, South Korea, and Taiwan have the highest prevalence of Internet addiction among young people (5). new kind of addiction, the Internet addiction, has been emerged as the problem of the communication age (6).…”

Internet Addiction among Senior Medical Students in King Abdulaziz University, Prevalence and Association with Depression

“…(Aboujaoude, 2010;Ayatollahi, 2010;Swaminath, 2008;Dargahi, 2007). This use is increasing with time, such enormous use is not without negative effects, like its detrimental effect on academic performance, social isolation and psychological problems (Subramaniam, 2008).…”