Internet Addiction, Sleep Quality and Depressive Symptoms Amongst Medical Students in Delhi, India.

The objectives of this study were to assess the proportion of medical undergraduate students and interns with internet addiction (IA), depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality and to study the association of IA with sleep quality and depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out in a medical college in Delhi. Universal sample consisting of all the medical students from first to final year (n = 185) and interns (n = 37) enrolled during the time of the study were included. Sleep quality, internet addiction and depressive symptoms in these students was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) Young's Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ) respectively. The average YIAT score was 33.16 ± 15.68. Overall 18%, 59.9%, 46.8% of students scored above validated cutoff scores for internet addiction, poor sleep quality and depression respectively. Prevalence of IA among males and females were 20.4% and 12.9% respectively. Significant correlations were found between potential IA, sleep quality and depression (p < 0.001). The study concluded a strong correlation between IA, disturbed sleep quality and depression. Identifying medical students with potential IA is important because this addiction often coexists with other psychological problems. Thus timely remedial actions and tailored interventions are required to combat IA among medical students. PMID: 32852657 [PubMed - as supplie...
Source: Community Mental Health Journal - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Community Ment Health J Source Type: research