Prevalence of Internet Addiction among Medical Students in Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Internet use has increased very rapidly around the world in the recent past and has contributed so much in qualifying the world as a 'global village'. However with internet access becoming so widespread, problematic internet use is increasingly being reported. It has been suggested that excessive internet use could represent addictive behaviour with mental health implications.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of internet addiction among medical students in ABSU Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out from April to July 2015 among 200 selected medical students of Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected using a selfadministered questionnaire prepared from a standardized 'Internet Addiction Test' questionnaire developed by Dr. Kimberly S. Young and was slightly modified for the participants.

Results: In the study, 87 (43.5%) of the participants were females and 113 (56.5%) males. Most of the participants were in the 21-25 year age group (56.0%). Overall analysis of subjects with internet addiction showed that 5 (2.5%) of subjects had severe internet addiction based on the scoring system used in this study, that is, those with scores 80-100. Out of these 5, 2 (1%) were females and 3 (1.5%) were males. [n=200]. Also, of the participants, 1 (2.3%) of the 15-20 year age group [n=43], 3 (2.7%) of the 21-25 year age group [n=112] and 1 (2.22) of the 25-30 year age group [n=45] had severe internet addiction based on the scoring system.

Conclusion: Internet addiction is a major problem in our society which is thought to still be in its infant stage but may have gone past this stage as dearth of studies and data in this part of the world obscure the reality of this mammoth disorder.

Keywords: Internet, Addiction, Medical Students, Uturu