Evaluation of internet addiction and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran

Background: Today, the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) is increasing among college students and the mental health of students is reduced with the increasing severity of IA. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate IA and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 417 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Southeast of Iran, during year 2016. The participants were recruited through a two-stage stratified sampling method. The data collection was done using Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and Goldberg General Health (GHQ) standard questionnaires. Data analysis were performed by ANOVA, Pearson correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression tests using SPSS software for Windows version 16. Results: The overall prevalence of IA in students was 27.56 (95 CI: 21.3 to 30.8). The prevalence of IA was 15.82 (95 CI: 11.3 to 19.7) in male and 11.74 (95 CI: 8.5 to 14.6) in female students. Mean mental health was 39.90 ± 1.34 and 48.17 ± 2.56 in normal and addicted users, respectively. There was a significant difference between IA and male gender (P = 0.001), major (P = 0.019), GPA (P = 0.001), college year (P = 0.013), time of using the Internet (P = 0.003), residency (P = 0.013), time (P = 0.011), location, and reason for using the Internet (P = 0.023). In addition, there was a positive correlation between IA and mental health (P = 0.02, r = 0.36). Conclusions: The overall prevalence of IA was high and effects the mental health of medical sciences students in the southeast Iran. Overuse of the Internet by students may cause depression, and decreased mental health and academic performance. Creating psychological support and the provision of various fun programs could reduce the willingness to overuse the Internet and may prevent from IA complications among students. © 2017, Shiraz E-Medical Journal

Evaluation of internet addiction and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran

Background: Today, the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) is increasing among college students and the mental health of students is reduced with the increasing severity of IA. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate IA and mental health among medical sciences students in the southeast of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 417 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Southeast of Iran, during year 2016. The participants were recruited through a two-stage stratified sampling method. The data collection was done using Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and Goldberg General Health (GHQ) standard questionnaires. Data analysis were performed by ANOVA, Pearson correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression tests using SPSS software for Windows version 16. Results: The overall prevalence of IA in students was 27.56 (95 CI: 21.3 to 30.8). The prevalence of IA was 15.82 (95 CI: 11.3 to 19.7) in male and 11.74 (95 CI: 8.5 to 14.6) in female students. Mean mental health was 39.90 ± 1.34 and 48.17 ± 2.56 in normal and addicted users, respectively. There was a significant difference between IA and male gender (P = 0.001), major (P = 0.019), GPA (P = 0.001), college year (P = 0.013), time of using the Internet (P = 0.003), residency (P = 0.013), time (P = 0.011), location, and reason for using the Internet (P = 0.023). In addition, there was a positive correlation between IA and mental health (P = 0.02, r = 0.36). Conclusions: The overall prevalence of IA was high and effects the mental health of medical sciences students in the southeast Iran. Overuse of the Internet by students may cause depression, and decreased mental health and academic performance. Creating psychological support and the provision of various fun programs could reduce the willingness to overuse the Internet and may prevent from IA complications among students. © 2017, Shiraz E-Medical Journal

Comparing care behaviors between sophomore and senior nursing students

Caring is defined as a core of health. It is believed that caring promotes patients' health and satisfaction. Some study revealed that caring in all of dimension did not applicable in the contemporary nursing care. With the effect of education on nursing students care quality, we decided to compare nursing care behaviors in first year and fourth year nursing students. The descriptive-cross sectional study was conducted on all of nursing students in second and forth years in Islamic Azad University (Dezful Branch). Sample size was 54 person including thirty six students in the third semester and twenty students in the eighth semester that passed clinical trainings in general wards. For data gathering Wolf's Caring Behaviors Inventory, which designed based on Watson's theory and literature review, was used. The Inventory was comprised of 42 statements. Every item was ranked 6point Likert- type scale. Reliability ascertained by Cronbach's alpha (0.97). All the inventories were filled by clinical supervisor of the course that was equal in two groups. Observation of behaviors revealed "professional knowledge and skill" as the most and "to pay respect to others" as the least important subscales. Moreover, the senior students gained higher caring point than the sophomores. The total point of care behavior follows an increasing trend as the students go through the program. Apparently, formal and informal educations are effective on behavioral development of the student. The main limitation of the study was that only one trainer participated as behavior observer and the author has no way to ensure no biased evaluation against/in favor a participant