Prevalence of Internet Addiction and Its Relationship with Psychological Distress Among Medical Students in a Malaysian Public University

Abstract

The internet is an essential part of our daily lives. Studies have reported various impacts of internet addiction on humans, including anxiety, stress and depression. The current study explores the prevalence of internet addiction and its relationship with psychological distress among medical students in Malaysian public university. The current cross-sectional study was performed among second- to fifth-year Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) medical students in the late 2019. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were used to gather data. The data collected were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. A Spearman correlation test and simple linear regression were used for the data analysis. A total of 386 medical students (96.5% response rate) participated in this study. Data analysis found that the prevalence of internet addiction among USM medical students was 6.7%. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between internet addiction and psychological distress. Extensive use of the internet was found to be associated with elevated levels of depression, stress and anxiety. Findings regarding the effects of internet addiction are similar to those in other studies conducted among Malaysian medical students. This study has provided essential insights into the relationship between internet addiction and psychological distress among medical students. Further investigation should be undertaken to explore other possibly addicted groups. Higher education providers should be aware of these internet addiction issues among their students and interventions should be introduced to tackle this problem.