Internet addiction in nursing students

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Problematic internet use is a growing problem in modern societies. Internet addiction (IA ) can be defined as a behavioral addiction between human and information technology-machine. Our aim was to identify IA among Palermo University nursing students by means of the Internet Addiction Test. METHODS: The study employed a cross-sectional study design. In April 2019 a survey was provided to students who attend daily lessons. The questionnaire was structured into two parts. The first section investigates on socio-demographic information, year of study, the perception of the economic and health status. In the second section of the questionnaire IAT was administered. A multivariable logistic regression model was used and adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR) are presented. RESULTS: The sample size consists of 413 students. Risk to have several problems due to the internet is significantly associated with the following independent variables: male gender (aOR 1.77, 95% CI : 0.89-3.52,); being single (aOR 3.14, 95% CI : 1.31-7.55); third year of study (aOR 2.99, 95% CI : 1.27-7.05,); to be student off-site (aOR 2.80, 95% CI : 1.07-7.36); low perceived health status (aOR 3.19, 95% CI : 1.52-6.67). CONCLUSIONS : Even though generally lower prevalence has resulted from our study in comparison with different geographical areas, IA is confirmed as an emerging problem among the young population of our Region, potentially threatening the health among university students.