. Gunjan Kumar; . Payal Dash; . Avinash Jnaneswa; . Vinay Suresan; . Kunal Jha; . Shishirendu Ghosal
Volume 12, Issue 5 , June 2022, , Pages 1-13
Abstract
BACKGROUND: COVID‑19 initiated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and over a period oftime, the infection outspread across the world in a rapid pace. To protect the people and to furtherlimit ...
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BACKGROUND: COVID‑19 initiated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and over a period oftime, the infection outspread across the world in a rapid pace. To protect the people and to furtherlimit the spread of infection, lockdown was declared in most parts of the world including India.As all people were forced to stay indoors during this pandemic, internet was the only source ofentertainment whose overuse has side effects on anxiety and sleep quality. This study is aimed toknow the impact of Internet addiction during COVID‑19 on anxiety and sleep quality among collegestudents of Bhubaneswar city.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a web‑based cross‑sectional, questionnaire study. Itadministered 475 students from six colleges. The students were assessed by a proforma containingdemographic details, patterns of internet use, Youngs Internet Addiction Test, Generalised Anxietydisorder score, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Statistical analysis was done using SPSSversion 21.0 using Chi‑square test and Wilcoxon signed‑rank test.RESULTS: The mean age of the study group was 18.81 ± 1.189. Out of 475 students, 60.6% werefemale and 39.4% were male. 23.6% and 13.4% of recruited students had severe internet addictionand anxiety disorder, respectively. The mean global PSQI score in the study was 6.356 ± 1.88.About 84.6% of the students had poor global sleep quality score. All components of sleep qualitywere significantly associated (P = 0.000) with different degrees of internet addiction except sleepduration (P = 0.589) and efficiency (P = 0.767).CONCLUSION: Females were highly addicted than males. The study findings specified that students’excessive internet usage leads to anxiety, and affects mental health. Monitoring and controllingstudents’ internet addiction through informative sessions on how to use the Internet adequately isuseful.
