Internet Use and Internet Addiction Disorder among Medical Students: A Case from China

Abstract

Internet is used more and more widely and extensively among university students. In order to keep abreast of Internet use among medical students, provide basis for cultivating correct and reasonable Internet use habits of them, based on expert consultation and literature review, a “Questionnaire on University Students’ Internet Behavior” is designed by the author, method of randomly stratified cluster sampling is employed to conduct questionnaire survey on 380 students from three medical academies in Xi’an in China, and the investigation results are analyzed through statistics. According to the result, the reported rate of medical students’ Internet surfing is 92.3%; with respect to the frequencies of Internet behaviors, it differs among medical students; close attention is paid to sending & receiving e-mails, searching for information, chatting, browsing current affairs, et al; while little attention is paid to business negotiation, falling in love and sexual behavior; in the prevalence rate of Internet addiction disorder, boys’ is obviously higher than girls’. In all, Internet behaviors of medical students are characterized by high need-hierarchy, concentrated value orientation and various types. But Internet addiction disorder is also rather conspicuous. Therefore families, universities and the society shall attach importance to it and take measures if necessary

Internet addiction and factors associated with it: a cross sectional study among students of a medical college in Davangere, Karnataka

“…3,12 A study on medical students in China reported a prevalence of 16.2%. 13 The wide variation in the magnitude of internet addiction might be due to different study settings, influence of environmental factors, variation in the scales used to assess internet addiction, as well as the nature of students involved.…”

A cross sectional study on internet addiction among students of KMCT integrated campus

“…Chathoth V M et al, reported prevalence of internet addiction (representing moderate and severe addiction) as 18.88% in undergraduate medical students in Mangalore [13]. A study on internet addiction disorder among medical students in China by Liu X et al, reported a prevalence of 16.2% [14].…”

Study to assess internet usage patterns and prevalence of internet addiction among medical and engineering students of Bengaluru city

“…15 A study on internet addiction disorder among medical students in China reported a prevalence of 16.2%. 16 Naffise Mashaei et al observed the prevalence of internet addiction in students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, as 51.3% mild, 5.4% moderate and 0.9% severe, while 42.4% students were not addicted to the internet. 17 Study by Choudhari et al among medical students in Maharashtra found internet addiction prevalence to be 58.87% which is very similar to our study.…”