An Evaluation of Internet Addiction and Psychological Distress among Undergraduate Nursing Students at College of Health Sciences, UOB, Bahrain

Background: Life and technology has become two sides of the coin. We are living in a era, where we cannot live without internet especially during student period. At the same time, if we are addicted to the internet, which causes deleterious effect on the psychological well being and caution should be taken while we use internet for longer period.

Objective: To evaluate internet addiction and psychological distress among Undergraduate Nursing students.

Design: Descriptive, cross–sectional survey design.

Setting: Nursing Department, College of Health Sciences, University of Bahrain.

Method: The sample size was 120 final year nursing students selected through convenience sampling technique. Internet Addiction Scale (IAT) and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were used.

Results: The level of internet addiction scored as mild 12.5 %(15), moderate 63(52.5%) & severe 42(35.0%). The level of psychological distress scored as low 18(15%), moderate 25(20.8%), high distress 40(33.3%) & very high distress 37(30.8%). There was a significant relationship between gender (p=0.01), age (p=0.02), marital status (p=0.03), mother’s occupation (p=0.02),and number of hours spent on internet per day (p=0.02) with internet addiction. There was also an association seen between gender (p=0.04), age (p=0.04), marital status (p=0.05), number of hours spent on internet per day (p=0.02) and frequency of internet usage (p=0.05) with psychological distress.

Conclusion: Proper utilization of technology will help nursing students to decrease the symptoms of psychological distress such as anxiety, depression and sadness. Internet addiction leads to increase absenteeism, low grade performance, decreased communication among students and even failure in academic studies.