Internet Addiction and Its Associated Factors among Undergraduate Students in Kathmandu, Nepal

Internet has penetrated all processes of life and has become an unavoidable part of people's daily life. This widespread use of the Internet has resulted in significant concerns with regard to problematic Internet behaviours and related conditions. The aim of the study was to find out the prevalence of Internet addiction and its associated factors among undergraduate students in Kathmandu.

We included all together 344 undergraduate students from different colleges affiliated to Pokhara University for this cross-sectional study. We used self-administered questionnaire consisting of the Internet Addiction Test scale to assess the Internet addiction. We coded the data, entered it in Epi-Data 3.1 and transferred to IBM SPSS 25 for analysis. We applied bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with Internet addiction, and p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significantt.

The prevalence of Internet addiction was found to be 29.90% (95% CI: 25.0-34.9). In the chi-squared test relationship with parents, parental control over the Internet use, perceived feeling of loneliness, and time spent on internet per day were found to be statistically associated (p < 0.05) with Internet addiction.

This study revealed nearly one-third of the Internet addiction among undergraduate students. Relationship with parents, parental control over the internet use, perceived loneliness feelings, and time spent on internet per day were significantly associated with Internet addiction along other factors. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness among young generation, parents, and teachers towards risk of Internet addiction.