Status of 'internet addiction disorder' (IAD) and its risk factors among first-grade junior students in Wuhan / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics and influential factors on internet addiction disorder (IAD) among first-grade junior students in Wuhan city. Methods An anonymous questionnaire survey was carried out on 1219 first-grade junior students through stratified cluster sampling in 4 middle schools in Wuhan city. Results The internet use rate (IUR) of first-grade junior students was 96.43% , with the average of primary surfer age as 8.93 + 1.95. The internet addiction tendency (IAT) rate and the IAD rate were 10.87% and 7.71% respectively. The IAT and the IAD detection rates among male students were significantly higher than in female students (χ~2=13.04,P<0.01). By ordinal logistic regression analysis, the relative factors mainly involved 6 aspects in IAD, including sex, poor academic performance, the surfer number of times, the surfer time, the surfer place and the surfer expense. Conclusion The prevalence rates of IAT and IAD were quite high in the first-grade junior students in Wuhan. School authorities, teachers and guardians should collaboratively working together to guide the students in using the network correctly, and to carry out effective interventions to reduce the incidence of internet addiction.