Internet and facebook addiction among Egyptian and Malaysian medical students: a comparative study, Tanta University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Internet addiction and problematic internet use (PIU) constitutes a problem among university students worldwide. Little is known about the adverse effects and unhealthy behaviors among medical students using internet and facebook . The objective of this study was to determine prevalence, associated factors and effects of Internet and Facebook addiction on medical students of Tanta faculty of medicine. Methods: Cross sectional study was conducted in Tanta faculty of medicine, Tanta University, Egypt on 861 Egyptian and Malaysian students at 4 th and 5 th medical year from March to May, 2015 in the academic year 2014-2015. A self-administered questionnaire was used. It included questions on socio-demographic and academic data, patterns of internet use, patterns facebook use, and young internet addiction test (YIAT). Results: The majority of the students of both Egyptian and Malaysian students reported that they have home internet access (85.8% and 89.2%) mostly via mobile phones (92.4%). Facebook the most frequently used social media by Egyptian students (93%), while other social media such as twitter, whatsapp, skype were more frequently used by Malaysian ones (96.4%). Habitual use of facebook late night was reported by 26.9% of Egyptian students compared to only 15.5% of Malaysian ones with statistically significant difference. The most commonly reported adverse effects were: eye irritation, followed by headache, then back pain. Only minor percentage of the students (2.7%) had significant problems in life due to internet use, while the largest percent of them (64.1%) were average internet users. Significantly higher percent of Egyptian students had (PIU) than Malaysian ones (3.8%, 0.9% respectively). Significant negative correlation was found between IAT scores and academic grades of the students . Conclusions: Facebook and internet use affects the social life of medical students. Excessive facebook and internet use is associated with adverse health effects and unhealthy behaviours. Medical students are at increased risk for problematic internet use, and to a lesser extent internet addiction which negatively affects their academic grades.