Narayanappa Poornima, Nirgude Abhay, Nattala Prasanthi, Philip Mariyamma, Subramanian Karthick
College of Nursing, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, IND.
Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Yenepoya Medical College, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangalore, IND.
Cureus. 2024 May 7;16(5):e59803. doi: 10.7759/cureus.59803. eCollection 2024 May.
Background Internet dependency behavior was found to be prevalent among adolescents even before the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns across the world including India. Adolescent users develop Internet addiction due to various risk factors. Aim The aim is to measure the prevalence and psychosocial predictors of internet addiction among adolescents before the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive study before the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown, included 1199 adolescents of both genders, aged 11 to 19 years, at selected educational settings from a city in south India, by using Young's Internet addiction test (IAT)-20 and structured questioner. Results The study found almost all the participants (100%) were using the internet in a day and the highest number of subjects started using the internet during their 6 standard of education (13%). Before the first wave of COVID-19 lockdown, the prevalence of a total of mild, moderate, and severe forms of internet addiction among adolescents was 65%. Individual, family, and community-related risk factors were found significant association with Internet addiction. The age of 14-16 years (OR 2.050, p= 0.000), duration of internet use in a day (OR 0.740, p= 0.064), financial matters (OR 0.981, p=0.016), total internet addiction score (OR 1.03, p=0.035) and timings of internet use (OR 1.161, p=0.004), were significant predictors of Internet addiction. Conclusion Internet addiction was prevalent and a notable behavior addiction among adolescents during the margin time of pre-pandemic and the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in India. The study highlighted many significant psychosocial risk factors and predictors of Internet Addiction in adolescents, thus the need for a panoramic approach to identify internet addiction in adolescents, to bring the modest behavior of healthy use of the internet in adolescents.
在包括印度在内的全球第一波新冠疫情封锁之前，就已发现青少年中网络依赖行为普遍存在。青少年用户因各种风险因素而染上网络成瘾。目的：旨在测量印度第一波新冠疫情封锁之前青少年网络成瘾的患病率及其心理社会预测因素。方法：在第一波新冠疫情封锁之前进行的一项横断面描述性研究，通过使用杨氏网络成瘾测试（IAT）-20和结构化问卷，纳入了来自印度南部一个城市选定教育机构的1199名年龄在11至19岁的青少年。结果：研究发现几乎所有参与者（100%）每天都在使用互联网，最多数量的受试者在其6年级时开始使用互联网（13%）。在第一波新冠疫情封锁之前，青少年中轻度、中度和重度网络成瘾的总患病率为65%。发现个人、家庭和社区相关的风险因素与网络成瘾有显著关联。14至16岁的年龄（OR 2.050，p = 0.000）、每天上网时长（OR 0.740，p = 0.064）、财务问题（OR 0.981，p = 0.016）、网络成瘾总分（OR 1.03，p = 0.035）以及上网时间（OR 1.161，p = 0.004）是网络成瘾的显著预测因素。结论：在印度疫情前边缘时期和第一波新冠疫情封锁期间，网络成瘾在青少年中普遍存在且是一种显著的行为成瘾。该研究突出了青少年网络成瘾的许多重要心理社会风险因素和预测因素，因此需要一种全面的方法来识别青少年的网络成瘾，以使青少年养成适度健康使用互联网的行为。
