ABSTRACT
Background: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) refers to the problematic use of on-line or off-line video games. Presently the prevalence of IGD among the adolescent group was between 1.3% to 19.9% and males reported more prevalence than females. Aims of this study was to know the prevalence and the various factors associated with the development IGD among adolescents.Methods: Settings and Design was to a cross sectional study was conducted among students of High schools for a period of 3 months from July 2018 - September 2018. Four hundred adolescent students were included in the study. English version of the DSM–5 short (9-item) dichotomous scale with cut-off point of five or more criteria was used for diagnosing the IGD.Statistical analysis used descriptive statistics were represented with frequencies and percentages. Chi-square and Fisher Exact tests were applied to find significance difference. P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: An overall prevalence estimate of IGD was 3.50% among the school children and it is higher among male students (8.8%) than female students (0.8%) and it was found statistically significant with a p value of <0.001.Conclusions: The prevalence differences between Age groups, gender, class of the student and availability of smart phone with internet facility act as an important risk factors for the occurrence of IGD among adolescents.