Screening for Internet addiction: an empirical study on cut-off points for the Chen Internet Addiction Scale

The aim of this study was to establish the optimal cut-off points of the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS), to screen for and diagnose Internet addiction among adolescents in the community by using the well-established diagnostic criteria of Internet addiction. This survey of 454 adolescents used screening (57/58) and diagnostic (63/64) cut-off points of the CIAS, a self-reported instrument, based on the results of systematic diagnostic interviews by psychiatrists. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve revealed that CIAS has good diagnostic accuracy (89.6%). The screening cut-off point had high sensitivity (85.6%) and the diagnostic cut-off point had the highest diagnostic accuracy, classifying 87.6% of participants correctly. Accordingly, the screening point of the CIAS could provide a screening function in two-stage diagnosis, and the diagnostic point could serve as a diagnostic criterion in one-stage massive epidemiologic research.