Abstract

INTERNET ADDICTION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH DEPRESSION: BAGHDAD, 2017

Belal Yaseen Ibraheem*, Hala Natiq Yahya and Angham Meki Hussen

Abstract

Background: The Increasing uses of the Internet whether over or pathological uses remain a growing concern worldwide; now internet addiction considered as an important health problem and requires more attention. Many studies revealed that internet addiction is positively associated with depression. It is important to evaluate depression in problematic internet users. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to find the prevalence of internet addiction and also to test if depression is a significant associated factor for internet addiction. Materials and methods: This study is cross-sectional with analytic components which conducted among 1584 students from the universities of Baghdad city. A multistage stratified cluster sampling used to select the sample. The students filled the questionnaire papers by self-administering methods. the statistical package for social science (SPSS version 22) software used for organization, presentation and analysis of the data. Results: The total prevalence of internet addiction among the study population was 38.9%, and the prevalence of internet addiction among males was 38.4% and 39.4% among females. The total prevalence of depression was 28.1%. There was a significant strong positive relationship between internet addiction and depression. Conclusions: According to the results of this study, it was found that depression was a positive predictor factor for internet addiction.

Keywords: The Increasing uses of the Internet addiction.