Internet addiction and health profile among medical, dental and nursing graduates of India

BACKGROUND: Over the past two decades, there has been an explosive and exponential growth in the use of the internet in India. Evidence supports the association of excessive internet use with poor mental health. The objective of the study was to determine internet addiction among medical students and its association with their general health profile.METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study on the medical, dental, and paramedical students of a tertiary care hospital in North India. Stratified random sampling was done for the recruitment of the participants in the study. A total of 384 participants were evaluated via survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire included the socio-demographic details, Young's Internet Addiction Test and Duke Health profile (17 items).RESULTS: Of the 384 evaluated participants, complete information on internet addiction was available for 371 participants and health profiles were available for 374 participants. Male participants had significantly higher (P<0.05) scores on the internet addiction test than females; however, the general health profiles among males and females did not differ significantly. Among the medical students (both males and females) and female nursing students, significant negative correlations were observed in most of the domains of health profile with the severity of internet use.CONCLUSIONS: Internet use is closely associated with the general health profile of an individual. As the severity of internet use increases the general health profile deteriorates. Internet addiction is associated with negative health effects.