Problematic internet usage and healthy lifestyle behaviors in university students

Abstract

Purpose: This study has been done with the purpose of determining the problematic internet usage and healthy lifestyle behaviors in university students.1723 students of Firat University were included in the study. Materials and Methods: The students were chosen according to the stratified sampling method in view of their departments, grades and genders. A questionnaire form including socio-demographic features and scales of problematic internet usage and healthy life style behaviors was applied to the students. Results: The average age of students is 21.5 +/- 2.2. 38.2\% of the students are women and 67.3\% students are men. 50.9\% of the students connect to internet at least 6 days in a week and 21.4\% of them connect to the internet around 2 hours in a day. The main purposes of the internet usage are checking his/her email address (87.8\%), reading newspapers and journals (63.4\%), and playing online games (28.4\%). Mostly seen problems connected with the long term internet use are burning in the eyes, pain in the trapezius muscles and sleepness. A significant negative correlation has been found between healthy lifestyle behaviors and problematic internet scale points. Conclusion: It has been seen that the problematic internet use in students affect the healthy lifestyle behaviors negatively. Measures that will derease the problematic internet usage and improve the healthy lifestyle behaviors should be taken.