Internet addiction and its association with academic performances and lifestyle pattern among students of selected colleges of Kolkata

INTRODUCTION

The internet is a worldwide system of networks accessible to millions of people worldwide through various devices. Over a period of time, it served an excellent service bringing positive effect on human life. Along with that internet certainly offers a lot of potentially addictive activities like shopping, gambling, social media, gaming, and pornography viewing etc. The term IA was first used by psychiatrist Dr. Ivan Goldberg in 1995. IA showed significant impacts on academic achievement, social life, relationships, occupation and finances.¹ It has become growing issue causing neurological complications, psychological disturbance and social problems.²

A survey done by Pew research centre in 2023 showed that 46% US teenagers use internet ‘almost constantly’ which is roughly doubled the 24% according to survey in 2014-2015 done by the same research centre.³ A systematic review and meta-analysis on global prevalence of digital addiction in general population studies which included reports on prevalence of various subtypes of digital addiction published before October 31, 2021 showed that 14.22% (95% CI, 12.90-15.65) global population were having IA.⁴ A systemic review and meta-analysis on prevalence of IA among college students in India that includes studies from 2010 to December, 2020 estimated that overall prevalence of IA was 19.9% and 40.7% based on the Y-IAT cut-off scores of 50 and 40, respectively. The study concluded that about 20% to 40% college students are at risk of developing IA in India.⁵

According to a study by Mukand among college students’ in Chandigarh showed that academic performance is significantly negatively correlated with IA (r=-0.410, p<0.05).⁶ A weak negative correlation (Spearman’s rho value of -0.167) was found between IA and academic scores in the study conducted by the Nagarajappa et al among undergraduate dental students of Bhubaneswar, India.⁷

Hassan and Ahmed conducted a study in four government secondary schools in Assiut city, Egypt which shows a statistical significant difference between levels of IA and lifestyle pattern (p<0.001) as regard bedtime, sleep disturbance, and tobacco use (χ2=182.96, χ2=194.66, χ2=31.12 respectively).⁸ A study by Sahin and Lok among 100 adult in Konya, Turkey showed a moderate negative relation between physical activity and level of internet dependency, (p<0.05, r=-0.429).⁹

Objectives

Objectives were to determine the level of IA among students of selected colleges, to find out the academic performances of internet addicted students of selected colleges, to find out the lifestyle pattern of internet addicted students of selected colleges, to determine the association of IA with academic performances among the internet addicted students of selected colleges, to find the association of IA with lifestyle pattern among internet addicted students of selected colleges and to find out the association between IA and selected demographic variables of students of college.

METHODS

Study design, settings and sample

Descriptive survey research was conducted from 27/02/2024 to 23/03/2024 among 270 students of five selected colleges of Kolkata. Disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was adopted where strata was based on students’ educational streams (Science, arts and commerce) and sampling fraction was ½, ½ and ¾ for science, arts and commerce strata respectively.

Measurement tools and validity

Tools were divided into four sections which were validated by seven experts.

Tool I: ‘Semi structured questionnaire on demographic profile’ was used to collect data regarding demographic characteristic and pattern of internet use through self-reporting. Bio-physical proforma was used to calculate BMI.

Tool II: IA test’ by Dr. Kimberly Young was adopted to assess level of IA through self-reporting.

Tool III: ‘Academic performance scale’ by Christopher McGregory was used to collect data regarding self-rated academic performance.

Tool IV: ‘Structured questionnaire on lifestyle pattern’ was used to collect data regarding life style pattern in four domains; those are sleeping pattern, nutritional pattern, activity pattern and substance abuse.

Inclusion criteria

Students who were under graduate and were willing to participate in the study were included.

Exclusion criteria

Students who were absent at the time of data collection were excluded.

Ethical approval and informed consent

Approval from the ethical committee of medical college, Kolkata was taken and informed consent from the students were obtained.

Data collection procedure

Sampling frame from each Strata (Arts, science, and commerce) prepared from their attendance register and by lottery method subject teachers helped to pick up desired number of samples. Data collection procedure took 20-30 min. At first data collected through self-reporting questionnaire. Then height, weight was checked.

Statistical analysis

The data was organized, tabulated, analysed and interpreted by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The data were computed using MS excel and SPSS version 23. Pearson’s correlation was used to find out relation between IA and academic performance. Chi square was computed to determine association of IA with lifestyle variables and demographic variables.

RESULTS

Table 1 shows that among 270 sample 79.63% students were between age group of 18-20 years, 54.07% were male and 45.93% were female. Most of the students (87.78%) were coming from home. More than half students (60.73%) had healthy weight. 66.3% students started using internet before 15 years of age and 52.22% of them used internet for 2-5 hrs daily. Among them 68.52% were using only mobile phone for surfing internet and 76.67% students surfed internet for both education and entertainment purposes (includes social media, watching and downloading video, movies).

Based on the total score of IAT, depicted in Table 2, respondents were categorized into 4 categories: normal users who use internet at normal level, mild level of internet addicts surf internet bit too long at times but have control over internet usage and so they are not considered as internet addicted. Moderate and severe internet addict students may be considered as internet addicted as they are experiencing occasional and frequent problems because of internet use which had full impact on their life. This means among them 100 students (37.04%) were having IA.

Data depicted in Table 3 shows that among internet addicted students 34% had self-rated them as a good academic performer, 54% had self-rated them as moderate academic performer and 12% had poor academic performance and none of them self-rated them as an excellent or failing academic performer.

Thus, hypothesis can be generated from the above finding in Table 4. H₁ there is statistically significant association between level of IA and self-rated academic performance of internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance.

So, from the findings in Table 5 a hypothesis can be generated: H₂ there is statistically significant negative correlation between IA score and self-rated academic performance score of internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance.

It suggests that the students who had higher levels of internet addiction tends to have lower academic performance and vice versa.

Data presented in Table 6 shows that 51% students slept less than 6 hrs/day, 48% felt sleepiness several days in a week in last 1 month. Findings in nutritional pattern showed that among internet addicted students 32% students ate junk food nearly every day, 24% students skipped their meal more than half days and 20% of students skipped their meal nearly every day in past one month. Most of the internet addicted students (60%) had healthy weight. Among them 9% never performed any kind of exercise during past 1 month and 29% internet addicted students never spend time with their hobbies during last 1 month. It also shows that among internet addicted students 26% had nicotine addiction and 11% had alcohol addiction during past 1 year.

Thus, hypothesis can be generated from the findings of Table 7: H₃ there is statistically significant association between level of IA and duration of sleep (hours per day), eating junk food, skipping meal, performing exercise (days per week) among internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance.

No statistically significant association was found between level of IA and nicotine and alcohol abuse of internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance.

*Moderate level and severe level of IA indicate IA.

Thus of Table 8, hypothesis can be generated from the above findings: H₄ there is statistically significant association between level of IA and educational streams of students, internet surfing time (hours/day) and device used for surfing internet at 0.05 level of significance.

DISCUSSION

The findings of the current study showed that 18.89% of students did normal level of internet use, 44.07% had mild level of IA, 35.93% had moderate level of IA and 1.11% had severe dependency on internet.

The current study findings were supported by the study conducted by Jain et al on IA among undergraduate students of a medical college in North India in 2020 where 38.6%, 29.6% and 2.6% students were found mildly, moderately and severely internet addicted.¹⁰

The present study findings showed that the mean of self-rated academic performance score was 22.3 with standard deviation of 5.18.

The finding of the current study is partially supported by a study conducted by Mukand on college students in 2023 where the findings showed that mean of academic performance score was 30.3 with standard deviation of 6.34.⁶

The findings of the current study showed that there is a statistically significant association between level of IA and self-rated academic performance of internet addicted students of colleges at 0.05 level of significance. It also showed that there is statistically significant negative correlation between IA score and self-rated academic performance score of internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance.

The finding of the current study was fully supported by a study of Mukand among college student in 2023 which showed that academic performance is significantly negatively correlated with IA (r=-0410, p<0.05).⁶

A study by Nagarajappa et al in 2023 on ‘impact of IA on academic performance of undergraduate dental students of Bhubaneswar, India’ showed that a weak negative correlation (Spearman’s rho value of -0.167) exists between IA and academic scores (at p=0.001 level of significance).⁷ This study finding partially supported the current study.

The findings of the current study showed that among internet addicted student, 51% slept less than 6 hours per day and 48% felt sleepiness several days in last one month, 32% ate junk food nearly every day, 20% of students skipped meal nearly every day in past 1 month, 59% never performed any kind of exercise in last 1 month. Among internet addicted students who performed exercise, 41.46% students performed exercise 60 minutes or more than that per day over past 1 month. Among internet addicted students 37% students enjoyed hobby 3 or more than 3 times per week. It was also found that 26% of students had nicotine addiction and 11% students had alcohol addiction during past 1 year.

A study conducted by Kamran et al ‘effect of IA on dietary behavior and lifestyle characteristics among university students’ in 2016 showed that among internet addicted students 34.94% students sleep less than 6 hours/ day, 9.65% students ate junk food nearly every day, 29.52% students skipped breakfast every day, 37.95% students never performed any of exercise and 13.85% had habit of smoking.¹¹ This study finding partially supported the current study.

The present study revealed that there is a statistically significant association between level of IA and duration of sleep (hrs per day), eating junk food, skipping meals, performing exercise (days/week) among internet addicted students of colleges at 0.05 level of significance.

The findings of the current study were partially supported by a study conducted by Kamran et al.¹¹ A significant association was there between IA and skipping breakfast (p=0.021), eating fast food and fried items (p=0.016 and 0.025 respectively), not involving in physical activity (p=0.038) and between levels of IA and hours of sleep per day (p=0.038) at 0.05 level of significance. Smoking was not associated with IA (p=0.885) at 0.05 level of significance.

The present study revealed that there is a statistically significant association between level of IA and educational stream of students, duration of internet surfing (hours/day), device used for surfing internet at 0.05 level of significance.

The finding of the current study was partially supported by a study conducted by Jain et al.¹⁰ The study results interpreted that there was association between IA and average Internet use per day (p=0.001) at 0.05 level of significance. But in contrast to the current study significant association was also been found between level of IA and gender (p=0.042), purpose of internet use (p=0.005) and place of living (p=0.042) at 0.05 level of significance.

Limitations

The study had following limitations-As the study was conducted only within colleges of Kolkata so the study findings cannot be generalized beyond this district. The answers were based on recall by participants which leads to recall biasness that may limit generalizability. As structured categorical questionnaire was used to collect the data, so it restricts the use of different statistical methods.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of the study findings, it could be concluded that maximum number of students of colleges were having mild IA. Level of IA was found to be significantly associated with self-rated academic performance of internet addicted students at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed a statistically significant negative correlation between IA score and self-rated academic performance score. The findings also showed that duration of sleep (hours/day), eating junk foods, skipping meals, performing exercise (days/week) were statistically associated with level of IA among internet addicted students. There were evidences of significant association between IA and educational streams of students, duration of internet use (hours/day), device used for surfing internet.

Recommendations

On the basis of the present study the following recommendations have been made for further study. A similar study may be replicated on secondary and higher secondary school students. A similar study may be replicated on students from different professional courses. A descriptive study may be conducted to assess IA and its relationships with depression, anxiety, stress. A descriptive study may be conducted to assess IA and relationships with self-esteem. A descriptive study may be conducted to determine IA and related clinical problems.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors would like to thank to principal and other faculty members of college of nursing, medical college and hospital, Kolkata.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee

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