The Prevalence of Internet Addiction and Its Associated Factors Among Iranian Adults

Abstract

Objectives: The internet is known as an essential part of individuals’ daily life. The present descriptive research aimed to determine the prevalence rate of Internet Addiction (IA) and its related factors in Iran. Methods: In total, 1046 internet users were recruited by a convenience sampling approach. The required data were collected by an online questionnaire, including a sociodemographic data scale and the Persian version of the Internet Addiction test. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: The current study findings indicated that the prevalence rate of IA was equal to 57.6%.The highest prevalence rate belonged to the research participants aged ≤35 years (67.5%), followed by females (61.5%), married subjects (66.7%), the holders of MSc and PhD. degrees (65.8%), and those employed in public sectors (68.5%). The highest prevalence of IA was detected among the study participants who spent one hour daily on the internet (94.7%); however, the lowest prevalence of the IA was observed among those who spent >10 hours daily on the internet (16.4%). Moreover, there was no dramatic difference between the internet access source and the IA among the research participants (P˃0.05). There was a significant relationship between all determined variables and the level of IA (P˂0.05). Discussion: The prevalence of IA was increasing in the studied population. Health educators are recommended to emphasize improving society’s awareness of IA. They are also suggested to develop educational preventive measures on increasing media health literacy approaches.

Keywords

• addiction
• internet addiction
• prevalence