A Correlative Study to Assess the Internet Addiction and Health Status among the Students of SOA University Bhubaneswa

With the advancement in media and technologies internet has emerged as an effective tool in eliminating human geographical barriers. However, excessive use of the Internet has resulted in negative consequences especially among the regular users labeling it as an addiction. The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of internet addiction and find a correlation between internet addiction and physical health status among university students.

A descriptive survey approach with cross sectional design was adopted for the study. 264 students were selected by convenient sampling technique from the different colleges of various streams like medicine, dental, nursing, pharmacology and agriculture, who are undergoing graduation and fulfilling the sampling criteria. The data collection instruments used were Internet addiction test (IAT) and Duke Health profile tool to assess the data.

Internet addiction test (IAT) is a 20 item questionnaire with 4 options having 1–5 scores consecutively. Maximum score is 100 and minimum score is 20. Researcher has taken the value less than 50 as normal and above 50 as abnormal use of internet. Duke health profile is a 17 item questionnaire with 3 options. Maximum score is 100 and minimum score is 0 and it assesses for physical health, mental health, social health, general health, self-esteem and perceived health.

This study reveals that according to IAT score 85.5% were normal & 14.5% were abnormal in 1st year, 95% were normal & 5% were abnormal in 2nd year, 68.9% were normal & 31.1% were abnormal in 3rd year, 10.7% were normal & 89.2% were abnormal 56.2% normal in 4th year.

Study also shows IAT score among various disciplines, 69.2% were normal and 30.8% were abnormal in medical college, 68% were normal and 32% were abnormal in nursing college, 50.5% were normal and 49.5% were abnormal in pharmacology college, 57.5% were normal and 42.5% were abnormal in dental college, 65.6% were normal and 34.4% were abnormal in agriculture college.

Further it was observed through the analysis that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between IAT score and physical health status which shows that as the internet addiction increases individual's health status is decreased.

Study revealed the importance of our concern to the use and misuse of internet among the youth. Most of the maers which go unnoticed could lead to grave dangers to physical and mental health. A comprehensive and detailed study into the concepts for reduction or modification of internet use among youth is vital.