Prevalence of Internet Addiction Among Iranian University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to estimate the overall prevalence of Internet addiction among Iranian university students. A total of 49 articles written in Persian or English, without time limitation, were gathered. Databases of Scientific Information Database, MagIran, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched during the period from February 13 to March 13, 2018. The following keywords and their possible combinations were used: Iran, student, Internet dependency, Internet addiction, and problematic Internet use. The Cochran's Q test was used to test the heterogeneity among the studies, and because heterogeneity was not significant, the random effects model was used to estimate the overall prevalence of Internet addiction. Data analysis was performed using STATA, version 12. Meta-analysis of 49 selected articles with a total sample size of 16,585 indicated that the overall prevalence of Internet addiction among Iranian students was 31.51 percent (95% confidence interval: 26.47-36.55). In addition, meta-regression analysis showed no significant relationship between Internet addiction and year of publication (p = 0.972) and sample size (p = 0.915). About one-third of Iranian students have Internet addiction. It is necessary to provide training workshops on learning about the consequences of Internet addiction and its management.