A comparative study of internet addiction among medical and engineering students

Garapati VA, Mopidevi V, Nukala S, Vinnakota A, Singisetti S, Chilukuri S, Sanapala V

Pdf Page Numbers :- 66-70

Venkata Abhilash Garapati¹, Vijayagopal Mopidevi², SriKrishna Nukala¹, Archana Vinnakota^1,*, Srinivas Singisetti¹, Shvetha Chilukuri ¹, and Vidya Sanapala¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Visakhapatnam, AP., India

²Department of Psychiatry, GSL Medical College and General Hospital, Rajahmundry, AP., India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Archana Vinnakota, MD (Psychiatry), Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Rushikonda, Visakhapatnam-530045, AP., India. Tel.: 9297106003; Email: vinnakotaarchana@gmail.com

Received 9 January 2020; Revised 10 March 2020; Accepted 20 March 2020; Published 27 March 2020

Citation: Garapati VA, Mopidevi V, Nukala S, Vinnakota A, Singisetti S, Chilukuri S, Sanapala V. A comparative study of internet addiction among medical and engineering students. J Med Sci Res. 2020; 8(2):66-70. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2020/8-9

Copyright: © 2020 Garapati VA et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Background: Internet is a tool that is evolving into an essential part of everyday life all over the world and its use is high among young people, not only in India but also worldwide in the last decade. Medical and engineering students in particular are the vulnerable group, considering that technology is incorporated into their education and they often have easy access to the internet at their respective campus.

Aim: To compare severity of internet addiction among medical and engineering students.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among first year to final year M.B.B.S & engineering students. The students were recruited from a medical college and an engineering college in coastal Andhra Pradesh during 1st October 2016 to 31st March 2017. 100 medical students and 100 engineering students were selected for the study, after obtaining informed consent the subjects were subjected to a semi structured proforma wherein their demographic profiles were recorded and the main study tool Internet Addiction Test was used on the subjects.

Results: Out of a sample of 200 undergraduate students, 52% were mildly addicted, 79(39.5%) were moderately addicted while 9(4.5%) were severely addicted to internet. 8% of engineering students and 1% of medical students were found to have severe internet addiction.

Conclusion: Engineering students are severely addicted than medical students. Education curriculum also shows impact on severity of internet addiction.

Keywords: Medical students; engineering students; internet addiction test