Internet addiction and ADHD, are they significantly related?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20190178Keywords:
ADHD, Internet addiction, Health sciences, StudentsAbstract
Background: There has been marked rise in use of internet over the last decade, with increasing internet use people are more prone to psychological disorders. This has markedly hit the population of young adults as they are the ones who maximum use internet. These users are also prone to develop Attention deficit hyperactive disorder(ADHD) and other behavioural problems.
Methods: The study was conducted by the Department of Psychiatry, 900 (design effect=2) students were randomly selected (620 from Medical College and 280 from Dental College). Out of 900, 618 students answered the questionnaire completely which included Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1). Subjects who came positive for ASRS were asked to undergo a test for DSM-V. Independent t-test was used to assess the outcomes and p<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The mean age of the participants were 20.03±1.45 years. It was found that people from age group 19-20 were addicted the most (240 students), coming next were from age group 21-22 (162 students). The prevalence rate of self-reported ADHD symptoms using the ASRS screener was 20.2%. Out of these ADHD suspects 39(31.45%) were moderately addicted and 73(58.87%) were mildly addicted, and this association was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Thus, with modernization it is seen that internet use has dramatically increased, which has various kinds of behavioural, psychological, mental effects on one's life. Moreover, students who were more addicted to internet were found to be more susceptible to ADHD.
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