EPA-0462 – Internet Addiction Among Medicine Student's in Tunisia

Abstract

Introduction:

Internet addiction is an emerging disorder, considered as a form of behavioral addiction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate internet addiction among medical students, undergraduates.

Subjects and methods:

Our study was cross-sectional and descriptive, interesting a sample of 60 students, undergraduate medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine of Sfax- Tunisia.

We performed self-award of:

1. - Questionnaire YIAT: Young's Internet Addiction Test (8 items). A score> = 5 was considered pathological

2. - And a predetermined questionnaire assessing the frequency and reasons for the use of the social network site Facebook.

Results:

Among the sample, 23.6% was diagnosed as Internet addicts. The prevalence of Internet addiction did not vary with gender. Consumption of tobacco or alcohol was found associated with 11% of students.

As for the use of the social network Facebook, 20% of students perceive their connection as excessive and 36.4% hold back hard not to see their facebook account. The use of facebook as a mean of entertainment and information on recent events were the most frequently reasons found in respectively 58.2% and 87.3% of cases.

A correlation was found between internet addiction and the perception of the student to have an excessive use of facebook (p =0.02).

Conclusion:

Our results are consistent with the literature data on the prevalence of internet addiction. This relatively high rate leads to pay more attention to this particular type of addictive behavior, particularly that associated with other psychopathologic problems, especially social anxiety, which should be sought.