The Internet Addiction Pattern and Its Mental Impact Among Medical Students in Bangalore: A Cross -Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Background: In recent times internet addiction has become a leading cause of many personality and psychiatric disorders. Researches done on this field has shown that younger population is more vulner-able because of their psychosocial and environmental characteristics. The medical profession is also joining this parade. Objectives: 1) To assess pattern of Internet Addiction among medical students. 2) To estimate the prev-alence of Anxiety, Depression and Stress among medical students. 3) To determine the correlation be-tween Internet Addiction and its impact on mental health. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted among 308 undergraduate students of 1st and 2nd year MBBS in a medical college, Bangalore. Young’s Internet Addiction Test –20 was used for assessment of Internet Addiction and DASS-21questionnaire for the assessment of Depression, anxiety and stress. Spearman’s Rank Correlation was used to find the strength of association. Results: In the present study mean age of the study participants was 20.6 years, around 54% were using internet from age of >15 years. Overall prevalence of severe internet addiction was found to be 1.3%. Nearly 53% reported depression and 69% had a state of anxiety.Conclusion: Chronic usage of internet including in odd hours was observed. Study showed strong posi-tive correlation between Depression and Internet addiction and Stress and Internet addiction.