Publication

AIMS: To identify the factors associated with tendency of internet addiction among nursing students. METHODS: An anonymous self-administered paper questionnaire was conducted among 223 first-to fourth-year nursing students at University A. The questionnaire items included basic attributes, lifestyle habits, interpersonal relationships, degree of mental health（K6）, circumstances of Internet use, degree of Internet addiction（Internet Addiction Test; hereinafter IAT）, and purposes of Internet use. The correlation between the IAT score and each questionnaire item was then analysed. RESULTS: Of the 170 people who responded to the questionnaire, those with inconsistent responses were excluded, and the results of the remaining 146 were analysed. The average（SD）IAT score was 37.9 （12.8）, with 96 respondents at low risk of Internet addiction（20-39 points）, 48 at medium risk（40-69 points）, and 2 at high risk（70-100 points）. The items that correlated with IAT score were frequency of eating breakfast（p＝.031）, satisfaction with family（p=.034）, degree of mental health（r=.304, p<.001）, time spent on the Internet（r=.360, p<.001）, and number of purposes for daily Internet use（r=.167, p=.044）. Purposes of Internet use included browsing large-scale discussion forums（p=.006）, posting on Twitter （p=.025）, playing online games（p=.014）, browsing online flea markets（p=.026）, and shopping online （p=.013）. CONCLUSION: The factors associated with tendency of Internet addiction among nursing students were eating breakfast, satisfaction with family, degree of mental health and time spent on the Internet, there was a correlation between Internet addiction and online activities such as Twitter, online games, and online shopping.