Evaluation of Anxiety in Excessive Use of Social Sites amongst Medical and Dental Students

Abstract

Background: decreased face to face interactions and social isolation has increased psychiatric morbidity in the society like such as increased depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviour, loneliness and narcissism. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of the study was to find out the use of social media sites by college students and its impact on their social relationships. Materials and Method: Cross sectional study was conducted at tertiary care hospital sample for 508 students between the ages of 17 to 26 years for more than 6 months. . The study was conducted using purposive sampling technique. The socio-demographic data and anxiety were assessed using a self-constructed tool and Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale respectively. The scores obtained through the administration of the questionnaire were subjected to statistical analysis in the statistical package for social science, version 17. Results: Maximum percentage (38.6%) of respondents’ daily internet usage was 2 hours . 2.6% students used internet even up to 10 hours/day. 9.1% respondents had moderate internet addiction. Out of 229 students who had used internet for 1-4 years, 17.6% respondents had anxiety symptoms. Also, out of 141 respondents who used internet for 5-8 years, 15.6% students exhibited anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: when tested for internet addiction, the group that had moderate internet addiction was more likely to have anxiety (23.9%) as compared to the counterparts who either did not have internet addiction or had only mild internet addiction. This correlation was statistically significant (p