Prevalence and associated factors of Internet addiction among college students using smartphone in Tamil Nadu -A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: There has been rapid growth on the internet not only in India, but also in worldwide. It is a major public health problem affecting an enormous number of individuals. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Internet addiction and its associated factors among college students using smartphone in Tamil Nadu.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Annamalai University from October 2019 to October 2020.A total of five hundred students from various streams (medicine, dental, bachelor of physiotherapy, engineering, arts and science) were selected conveniently and a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. A questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, questions on internet usage and Young's internet addiction test were used to gather data. Descriptive Statistics was defined in terms of percentage and frequency. Inferential statistics was analysed with Chi-Square test.Results: Out of the five hundred students, 45.4% were males, 54.6 % were females .The users were divided into groups, 38.8 % as normal users, 37% as mild addicts, 21% as moderate addicts, 3.2% as severe addicts. Thus overall prevalence of internet addiction was 61.2%. Degree of internet addiction was significantly associated with age, time spent daily on the internet and using internet for social media, online communications and playing online games.Conclusions: The present study showed a prevalence of internet addiction is high among college students. Therefore, it’s essential to make awareness among the students to enhance their quality of life through the prevention of addictive usage of the internet.