Association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students

Irena Penha Duprat,Verônica De Medeiros Alves,Frida Marina Fischer,Janine Melo De Oliveira

doi:10.33448/rsd-v10i6.15505

Abstract

Objective: to investigate the evidence in the literature on the association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students. Method: an integrative review of publications on the CINAHL, EMBASE, LILACS, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycInfo, SciELO, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde databases was carried out, without restrictions regarding language or publication date. The final sample comprised 5 articles, which were organized and characterized according to author, year, method, sample, country, instruments and results. Results: the prevalence of internet addiction among university students ranged from 7.7% to 27.3%, and suicidal ideation from 7.4% to 36.1%. The results of simple logistic regression analyses showed a significant association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation, although on multiple logistic regression this association was not statistically significant for 2 out of the 5 studies reviewed. Subjects at risk of or with addiction to the internet had a significantly higher rate of suicidal ideation compared with controls. Conclusion: although the presence of association does not indicate causality, these findings serve as an early warning sign to parents, educators and health professionals, indicating the need for longitudinal studies to further elucidate this relationship.

Highlights

Internet use has soared 1,239% over the last 20 years
In order to maximize the number of articles retrieved, the following electronic databases were searched: Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Excerpta Medica atabase (EMBASE), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências de Saúde (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System on-line (MEDLINE), Psychology Information (PsycInfo), SCOPUS and Web of Science; in addition to the libraries: Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI/PubMed)
The results of this review showed a significant association between internet addiction and suicidal ideation in university students

Summary

Introduction

Internet use has soared 1,239% over the last 20 years. North America and Africa are the regions with the highest (90.3%) and lowest (42.2%) internet penetration rates, respectively (Internet World Stats, 2020a). Brazil has 149,057,635 users (70.1% penetration) and is ranked seventh for internet usage among the countries of South America (Internet World Stats, 2020b). Despite the numerous benefits of internet use (for communication, information searches, scientific research, social contact, new habits, affirmation of diversity and self-knowledge, a forum for gatherings, among others) (Fumero et al, 2018; Ibope, 2019), the long daily hours of interactivity over the internet can impact peoples lives and promote significant changes in habits, behaviors, personal and social relationships, and may pose a danger to health (Ibope, 2019; King et al, 2019; Picon et al, 2015)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion