JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Historically, the internet began to expand on a global scale in the 1990s. Since then, the internet has become an essential part of our life (Curran et al., 2016). Evidence has shown an explosive growth of internet usage worldwide (Srijampana et al.,2014). The internet is not a harmful technology however, overuse will expose university students to addiction, which leads to negative health outcomes, such as depression, social isolation, and poor university performance (Sert et al., 2019). According to Curran et al., 2016, the prevalence of internet users has risen exponentially to 1 billion in 2019 from 2005 in Geneva to reach 4.1 billion in 2019. In Europe and the United States of America, the use of the internet increased from 7.9% - to 25.2% in (2018). Nevertheless, internet availability at home, at university, and generally everywhere has led to public health concerns such as internet addiction, social isolation, and association with depression (Tang et al., 2017; Seki et al., 2019). The prevalence of internet use has increased in Jordan rapidly. In Jordan, there was an increase in internet users from 5.3 million users in 2013 to 8.7 million in 2019 (Internet World Statistics, 2019). University students were more vulnerable to internet addiction because of ease of access to the internet and the absence of self-control (Jin et al., 2019; Lebni et al., 2019). Internet addiction (IA) can be defined as an un-control use of and access to the internet that leads to impairment in university students’ daily activities, distress, and negative health consequences, therefore, their lives become increasingly unmanageable (Weinstein & Lejoyeux, 2010). Singh and Paliwal, (2020) defined internet addiction as a behavior pattern of excessive internet that use has similarities to substance addiction, such as tolerance, withdrawal, recurrent failure to cut or quit, and impairment in daily life. Similarly, Seki, (2019) defined internet addiction as like addiction of alcoholism. Furthermore, Lebni et al. (2019) reported that internet addiction is a true modern dependency addiction, like drug addiction and other types of dependency, and can be considered a social crisis with varying degrees of psychological and social dysfunction. Internet addiction is correlated with depression. Alzayyat et al., (2015) conducted a study in Jordan and found that depression is the most prominent psychiatric symptom associated with internet addiction. Depression is viewed as a constellation of negative emotions and behaviors among university students (Liang et al., 2016; Jain et al., 2020). It includes feelings of worthlessness and loneliness, crying, worrying about doing terrible things, and feeling to be perfect. Some evidence indicates that depression is strongly related to other psychological and behavioral problems such as stress, and anxiety (Liang et al., 2016). Bhat and Kawa, (2015) conducted a study in Kashmir with a sample of 210 postgraduate students at Kashmir University to examine their internet use status and depression. The researcher found that male university students experienced more internet addiction compared to female students. The results show that there is a significant positive association between internet addiction and depression (Javaeed et al., 2019). According to Mohebi et al. (2018), 45.5% of university students were addicted to the internet and were suffering from psychological and social dysfunction. Most university students suffer from internet addiction and have depressive symptoms, such as loneliness, isolation, and depression. According to these results, it can be alarming that half of the students had poor mental health and there was a significant association between depression and internet addiction (Liang et al., 2016; Jain et al., 2020). There is a critical research gap when it comes to the local studies conducted in Jordan and the surrounding nations, the lack of studies on this subject causes ambiguity about university students in Jordan. (Alzayyat et al., 2015; Rabadi et al., 2017).

Objective:

To assess the association between internet addiction and depression among undergraduate health science faculties university students in Jordan.

Methods:

Study design & participants A correlational cross-sectional quantitative approach was used to assess the association between internet addiction and depression among undergraduate health science facilities students in Jordan. The required sample size was 299 participants. The study was conducted at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). A governmental university that is affiliated with the Ministry of Education in Jordan, located on the outskirts of Irbid, at AL Ramtha in north Jordan. A self-administered questionnaire was adapted from the questionnaire used by Alhantoushi & Alabdullatif, (2014). The questionnaire consisted of three parts: Section one is, demographic characteristics. Section two is, Internet Addiction Test (IAT) which consists of 20 items. The third section is related to, depression scale and consists of 20 items by Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-DS). Table- 1 Demographic characteristics of the participants.

Results:

A positive association between internet addiction and depression. The internet addiction among the participation sample was 8.4%, and 78% for depression. The results suggested that there was a statistically significant difference between the lecture not attended and internet addiction.

Conclusions:

Internet addiction is prevalent among medical students at JUST University, showing that 8.4% of medical students are addicted to the internet, and the prevalence of depression among enrolled samples was 78%. Students with high levels of depression are more likely to be internet addicts. So, these results and findings increase our understanding of the association between internet addiction and depression. Our data and findings emphasize important education about internet addiction to improve the quality of educational programmers provided to university students. The first step of treating is awareness of these problems, this is often the most challenging step for students. Oftentimes the problem is realized with assistance from family, friends, and academic teachers are the primary educators who help in clinical areas in administrators and accomplished by implementing educational programs for solving these issues. Clinical Trial: Based on our findings in this study, the following recommendation can be taken into consideration. Establishing awareness sessions about internet addiction and the resulting psychological and social problems for students. Building therapeutic counseling programs for the category of students who are addicted to the internet both genders and who suffer from depression, so that these programs contribute to alleviating their Internet addiction and depression. Establishing studies dealing with the internet addiction variable and applying them to other samples in society