ABSTRACT
Background: The concept of internet addiction is a form of behavioural addiction, characterised by the pathological, compulsive, excessive, and dependent use of internet services predicated on increased on-line presence, inability to reduce usage, associated feelings of restiveness and depression, loss of physical relationships and opportunities, and a means of escaping negative feelings. Higher institutions of learning largely consists of young people who use the internet for both curricular and extracurricular activities and due to the availability of free time and lack of regulation, they tend to use the internet over prolonged periods of time and are consequently predisposed to the problem of addiction. Although numerous studies have conducted on the problem of internet addiction, few studies have been conducted locally particularly in Benin City. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, prevalence and depressive effects of internet addiction among undergraduates of selected universities in Benin City. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used for this study. Seven hundred and seven undergraduate students of the University of Benin and Benson Idahosa University were selected for this study using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected using self-administered pre-structured questionnaire adapted from the Young Internet Addiction Test and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale and analysed using the IBM SPSS version 25.0 software. Data was categorized and analysed using descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentage based on the total number of respondents. Univariate analysis was carried out on the sociodemographic data to analyse the sample population, bivariate analysis was done to determine the relationship between variables such as: age, sex, etc.. Multivariate analysis was done using multiple logistic regression to identify the correlation between variables. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The results were presented with tables, charts and prose. Results: A total of 707 students participated in the study. The mean age (SD) of respondents was 23.03 ± 2.82 years. Majority of the respondents 57.0% (n = 403) were males and 82.5% (n = 583) of the respondents practised Christianity. More than half 358 (51.0%), had good knowledge of internet addiction while 349 (49.0%) had poor knowledge of internet addiction with school, age, level and family structure shown to be statistically significantly associated with internet addiction. A greater proportion, 547 (77.0%), showed a positive attitude towards internet addiction while 160 (23%) had negative attitude towards internet addiction. Furthermore, greater proportion 339 (48.0%) of the respondent had normal usage the of internet addiction, while 168 (24%), 166 (23%) and 34 (5%) had mild, moderate and severe internet addiction respectively. Lastly, Most, 643 (90.9%), of the respondent rated normal on the depressive effects of internet addiction. 30 (4.2%) had mild depressive effects of internet addiction, 26 (3.7%) had moderate depressive effects of internet addiction, eight (1.1%) had severe depressive effects of internet addiction and none 0 (0.0) had extremely severe depressive effects of internet addiction Conclusion: The study showed good knowledge of internet addiction, positive attitude towards and a significant prevalence of internet addiction among respondents. Thus, there is a need for relevant stakeholders to address this significant health challenge. Keywords: Addiction, Internet Addiction.
