Internet use and its association with cases of depression in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Objectives: The objective is to determine the association of pattern of Internet use with depression in the adult population.Methods: The case–control study was carried out at the psychiatry department of a tertiary care hospital from December 2019 to December 2020. The study included 140 participants (70 patients diagnosed with depression and 70 controls-normal individuals without depression). Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) was used to determine the severity of depression. The socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, and marital status) and the Internet use parameters (duration of internet usage per day, years of use, type of Internet connection, gadget being used, location for using the Internet and websites) were compared between cases and controls to know the risk association of internet use with depression and its severity. P < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.Results: Compared to controls, cases had significantly higher use of internet (6.8 ± 3.8 vs. 4.35 ± 3.97 h/week, P = 0.003) and overall years of internet use (5.94 ± 2.42 vs. 4.71 ± 2.22, P = 0.002) with odds ratio of 2.345 (95% confidence intervals [CIs] 1.267–4.325) and 3.217 (95% CIs 2.321–5.478), respectively. HDRS scale showed that there were 29 (41.43%) cases of mild depression, 39 (55.71%) cases of moderate depression and 2 (2.86%) cases of severe depression. A significant positive correlation was seen for Internet use (r = 0.759, P < 0.0001) and year using internet (r = 0.876, P < 0.0001) with the severity of depression.Conclusion: Increased duration of internet use holds a significantly higher odds of depression in the adult population. The severity of depression holds a direct relation to the increasing use of Internet.