Abstract
Objective: To identify the prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) and associated factors among Iranian medical students. Material and Methods: The cross-sectional survey was conducted on a random sample of 400 students. The self-administered questionnaire consisted of two sections: the first section was sociodemographic data, data about student's relations, and Internet use characteristics; the second part aimed at assessment of the level of IA using Young's 20-item scale for IA. Data analyzed in SPSS 20 at 0.05 significant level . Results: Considering their familiarity with the Internet, 80.3% stated personal experience and 12.3% individuals stated educational periods held outside the university. The most locations of using the Internet were dormitories (21.0%) and houses (43.5%). Concerning hours of Internet use, 45.2% used the Internet more than two hours per day. One hundred sixty-eight individuals (42.0%) stated that they used the Internet less than 15% for university activities. One hundred eighty-eight individuals (47.0%) used VPN and 75.5% were dissatisfied with Internet speed 61.2%. A total of 64.3% had a poor dependency on the Internet and the prevalence of IA was 3.5%. The mean score of IA questionnaire was 43.98 ± 15.92 from 125. The mean score of IA was higher in the male sex, but there was no significant correlation between sex and IA (p>0.05). There was not a significant correlation between the field of study and the year of entrance . Conclusion: The prevalence of Internet addiction among medical students was low. Identification of factors associated with IA can help in the planning of preventive programs to raise students’ knowledge about the hazards IA.
Highlights
The Internet changed the nature of communications in the 20th century dramatically and such change is more often true about adolescents who are known as Net generation [1]
The self-administered questionnaire consisted of two sections: the first section was sociodemographic data, data about student's relations, and Internet use characteristics; the second part aimed at assessment of the level of Internet addiction (IA) using Young's 20-item scale for IA
The mean score of IA was higher in the male sex, but there was no significant correlation between sex and IA (p>0.05)
Summary
The Internet changed the nature of communications in the 20th century dramatically and such change is more often true about adolescents who are known as Net generation [1]. Normal users use it for reading news, events, education and searching for university websites Those who are dependent on Internet, use it aimlessly in private places [7]. Like drug addiction and other dependencies, Internet addiction is a real addiction Such addiction is a chronic, recurrent and pervasive event followed by severe physical, economic, familial, social and mental impairments [8]. Studies indicated that the overuse of Internet had an adverse effect on the mental health of students. Previous research showed that students addicted to the Internet had less complex practices than normal individuals. They were less able to process information and control motivations [12]. In continuing our interest in the medical research [14,15,16,17,18], the present research was conducted on Iranian students of medical sciences to consider increase in application of Internet, it’s inevitable role in students’ research activities, importance of students’ mental health, their role in future and lack of information in this regard
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