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Prevalence and associated factors of Internet addiction among undergraduate students at Al-Beheira Governorate, Egypt

  • Original article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

The study aimed to identify the prevalence and risk factors associated with Internet addiction (IA) among undergraduate students.

Methods

In total, 608 undergraduate students aged 18–24 years were randomly included in a population-based cross-sectional study conducted during June–August 2018.

Results

The prevalence rate of IA was (47.5%) with moderate and severe IA (35.5% and 12.0%, respectively). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, sociodemographic variables (age, gender, and residence) Internet use pattern factors (Internet use for entertainment, games, and communication purposes, spending more than 4 h per day using the Internet, Internet access at home, and smartphone use), lifestyle variables (lack of physical activity and sleeping less than 6 h daily) were found to be independently associated with Internet addiction.

Conclusions

According to the results of this the study around 50% of undergraduate students are at risk for developing addiction to the Internet. Internet addiction was found to be associated with lifestyle and behavior factors.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Ahmed Eissa and Mrs Asmaa Mohamed for their help in data collection during study period.

Funding

The study did not receive any funding or support of any form.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Medicine Department, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, New Damietta, Damietta Governorate, 34511, Egypt

    Basem Salama

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  1. Basem Salama
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Contributions

Data gathering and idea owner of this study, study design, data gathering, writing and submitting manuscript, editing and approval of final draft, all are the responsibility of the author.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Basem Salama.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declared any conflict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of thus paper.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, and National Research Committee and meet the ethical standard outlines in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 2000.

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Cite this article

Salama, B. Prevalence and associated factors of Internet addiction among undergraduate students at Al-Beheira Governorate, Egypt. Int J Public Health 65, 905–910 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01429-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01429-9

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