The Prevalence of Internet Addiction and its Relation with Demographic Factors among the Students of Gonabad Universities

Background: With the invention of internet and its wide popularity in addition to the many benefits that was accompanied with many damages and problems. The biggest damage is to use this technology is addiction. internet addiction can be chronic, pervasive, recurring and very damaging disorder. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of internet addiction and its relation with demographic factors among the students of Gonabad universities in the academic year of 2015-2016. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. The sample of study was all students of Azad and  Payam Noor University of Gonabad. 1182 students of university Azad and Payam Noor University of Gonabad participated in the research process to method of simple random sampling. To collect information on the demographic questionnaire and the Young internet Addiction Scale. Data was analyzed with SPSS-19 software, descriptive statistics and chi.square test. Results: The prevalence rate of internet addiction was 14.3 %. The prevalence rates in male and female samples were 14/1% and 14/5%, respectively. 33/9% from students in the sample were at risk of internet addiction disorder. Chi square test results showed no significant relationship between gender, marital status, Field of Study and  internet addiction (p>0/05). But the analyze results indicated a significant relationship between age, place of residence, Level of education and type of university with the prevalence of internet addiction (p<0/05). Conclusion: According to the high prevalence of Internet addiction among students is required appropriate treatment interventions for students with internet addiction.