Prevalence of internet addiction and its association with quality of sleep among secondary and higher secondary school students of Jamnagar Gujarat during COVID-19

Background: The internet is a vital part of present-day society. Internet use for education has increased in recent years. During the COVID pandemic, schools were closed and education was delivered through online methods, which led to a further increase in internet use, especially in adolescents, leading to internet addiction in some.

Aim: To estimate the prevalence of internet addiction and poor quality of sleep in adolescent students of Jamnagar.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out between January 2022 to March 2022 and included 1778 adolescent students of Jamnagar, Gujarat. The internet addiction test was used to measure the level of internet addiction, and the short Pittsburgh sleep quality index was used to measure the quality of sleep. Data analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, and multiple logistic regression techniques.

Results: In our study, 17.8% of participants had mild internet addiction, 3.2% of participants had moderate-to-severe internet addiction, and 79% of participants were average internet users. Associated variables with internet addiction were male gender, residence at home, duration of internet usage in years, daily hours spent online, and monthly expenditure on internet recharge. Furthermore, 27.2% of participants had poor quality of sleep. Female gender, secondary school education, residence at the hostel, and internet addiction were predictors of poor quality of sleep.

Conclusion: Students were found to have a high prevalence of internet addiction. The internet usage increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Internet addiction was significantly associated with poor quality of sleep in adolescents.