Evaluation of Internet Addiction and Mental Health Among Medical Sciences Students in the Southeast of Iran

Today, the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) is increasing among college students and the mental health of students is reduced with the increasing severity of IA. The aim of this study was to evaluate IA and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran.
This cross-sectional study was carried out on 417 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Southeast of Iran, during year 2016. The participants were recruited through a two-stage stratified sampling method. The data collection was done using Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and Goldberg General Health (GHQ) standard questionnaires. Data analysis were performed by ANOVA, Pearson correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression tests using SPSS software for Windows version 16.
The overall prevalence of IA in students was 27.56% (95% CI: 21.3 to 30.8). The prevalence of IA was 15.82% (95% CI: 11.3 to 19.7) in male and 11.74% (95% CI: 8.5 to 14.6) in female students. Mean mental health was 39.90 ± 1.34 and 48.17 ± 2.56 in normal and addicted users, respectively. There was a significant difference between IA and male gender (P = 0.001), major (P = 0.019), GPA (P = 0.001), college year (P = 0.013), time of using the Internet (P = 0.003), residency (P = 0.013), time (P = 0.011), location, and reason for using the Internet (P = 0.023). In addition, there was a positive correlation between IA and mental health (P = 0.02, r = 0.36).
The overall prevalence of IA was high and effects the mental health of medical sciences students in the southeast Iran. Overuse of the Internet by students may cause depression, and decreased mental health and academic performance. Creating psychological support and the provision of various fun programs could reduce the willingness to overuse the Internet and may prevent from IA complications among students.