An online cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of psychological problems may increase in the period of national and international health-related crises such as COVID-19. When the Lockdown is the only way to prevent people from this kind of infectious disease, in that case, direct social activities are banned by the government, and people have to stay at their homes. This may increase the use of the internet for virtual social contact. This may increase the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) among people. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of IA among people living in Varanasi district during the Lockdown period due to the COVID-19 in India. A total of 350 respondents fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were contacted through telephonic call and massage with the help of volunteers living in the selected areas. An online semi-structured questionnaire consisting of a socio-demographic variables and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was prepared with the help of the Google Forms. The links of the online questionnaire were forwarded to all the respondents to collect the data. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 27.69±9.62 years and the majority of them belong to age group 18-25 years. The prevalence of IA among the respondents was found respectively 50.29% mild, 18.29% moderate, and 1.71% severe level, while only 29.71% were found as a normal internet user. There was a significant association between IA and age (p<0.05), gender (p<0.05), marital status (p<0.01), and family type (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the prevalence of psychological problems such as Internet Addiction may increase during the national and international crisis such as COVID19.

Full text

Cross-sectional
The International Journal of Indian Psychology
ISSN 2348-5396 (Online) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (Print)
Volume 8, Issue 3, July- Sep, 2020
DIP: 18.01.052/20200803, DOI: 10.25215/0803.052
http://www.ijip.in
© 2020, Prkash S, Yadav J S & Singh T.B.; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
An online cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of
Internet Addiction among people staying at their home during
Lockdown due to COVID-19
Shiv Prakash
1
*, Jai Singh Yadav
2
, T.B. Singh
3
ABSTRACT
Background: The prevalence of psychological problems may increase in the period of
national and international health-related crises such as COVID-19. When the Lockdown is
the only way to prevent people from this kind of infectious disease, in that case, direct social
activities are banned by the government, and people have to stay at their homes. This may
increase the use of the internet for virtual social contact. This may increase the prevalence of
Internet Addiction (IA) among people. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to
assess the prevalence of IA among people living in Varanasi district during the Lockdown
period due to the COVID-19 in India. A total of 350 respondents fulfilling the inclusion and
exclusion criteria were contacted through telephonic call and massage with the help of
volunteers living in the selected areas. An online semi-structured questionnaire consisting of
a socio-demographic variables and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was prepared with the help
of the Google Forms. The links of the online questionnaire were forwarded to all the
respondents to collect the data. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 27.69±9.62
years and the majority of them belong to age group 18-25 years. The prevalence of IA among
the respondents was found respectively 50.29% mild, 18.29% moderate, and 1.71% severe
level, while only 29.71% were found as a normal internet user. There was a significant
association between IA and age (p<0.05), gender (p<0.05), marital status (p<0.01), and
family type (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the
prevalence of psychological problems such as Internet Addiction may increase during the
national and international crisis such as COVID19.
Keywords: Corona Virus, Psychiatric disorders, Mental Health, Pandemic Diseases, Internet
1
PhD Research Scholar, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu, University,
Varanasi, U.P., India.
2
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu, University, Varanasi, U.P.,
India.
3
Professor, Centre of Biostatistics, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu, University, Varanasi, U.P.,
India.
*Responding Author
Received: July 26, 2020; Revision Received: August 04, 2020; Accepted: September 25, 2020

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 425
vulnerable disease due to corona virus known as COVID-19 was started to spread
in all over the world from the Wuhan City, China since December 2019 (Holshue et
al., 2020). It was the first time, when there were around 40 cases of pneumonia
disease with unidentified etiology reported in the Hunan Seafood market. Then the Chinese
authorities started to investigate the etiology of these cases with the collaboration of World
Health Organization (WHO), and they found the reason behind it as a new virus and named
it Novel Corona Virus (WHO, 2020a). Within some weeks number cases were started being
reported in all over the world, then on January 30, 2020 WHO declared it as Public Health
Emergency of International concern (WHO, 2020a. 2020b, 2020c). The first case of death
due to this virus was reported in China on January 11, 2020 and then in Philippines on
February 2, 2020.
WHO announced it as corona virus disease or the COVID-19, and declared it as a pandemic
when it spread up to 114 countries (WHO, 2020c). In the absence of proper treatment
methods and medicine, it has become a serious matter in all over the world. Many countries
have declared lock-down to prevent their citizen from this disease. Indian Government
declared in a complete lockdown on w.e.f. March, 24, 2020 in the whole country to prevent
every citizen from the COVID-19. In this crisis, people are forced live at their home to avoid
direct social contact.
The people working in the offices, school and colleges has been requested by the
government to work from home. The students have started studying through online classes,
and most of the other works such as social contacts, shopping, banking, trading and
entertainment is being done by the internet during this lockdown period. In short, it can be
stated that the use of internet has been increased during the lockdown period due to the
COVID-19. This may leads to the increase in the prevalence of Internet Addiction (IA) in
future. Hence, the present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of IA among people
staying at their home during the lockdown period due the COVID-19 in the Varanasi district
in Uttar Pradesh.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional online survey was carried out in Varanasi district, in Uttar Pradesh.
Sample size
We got a study conducted by Sunil and Debata (2018) on the prevalence of IA among
students in India with 67% prevalence of IA. But we could not find any study on general
population. Students are more vulnerable to use of internet for their academic purpose as
well as entertainment, online gaming and social networking. Hence, we took the prevalence
of IA 50% among general person and assumed that IA will increase by 20% during home
stay due to the lockdown. The level of confidence was taken 95% and the power of study
85% with design effect as 1.5, thus we required 348 study subjects. Then final sample size
was taken as 350 respondents.
Inclusion criteria
People living at their home in Varanasi district during the period of Lockdown due to
Corona Virus.
1. Age 14 and above.
2. Both male and female.
3. Willing to participate.
4. Using internet and Smartphone.
A

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 426
Exclusion criteria
Having any chronic illness.
Tools
An online survey questionnaire was prepared with the help of Google forms. The
questionnaire consists of socio-demographic variables (such as age, gender, marital status,
education, occupation, family income, family type, and residence), and Internet Addiction
Test developed by Young (1998). It consists of 20 items based on the 6 point Likert scale.
The respondents rates these items from 0 (doesn’t reply) to 5 (always). The total score is
calculated by adding the responses of the respondents. A score 0-19 is taken as normal
internet users, respectively 20-49 as mild internet addiction, 50-79 as moderate internet
addiction and 80-100 as severe internet addiction.
Procedure
The area of the study was Varanasi district. The cluster sampling method was used for the
selection of the respondents. First some randomly selected areas were chosen as clusters
then the researchers contacted some volunteers living in this areas, and they were informed
about the importance of the study, instruction related to the questionnaire, the inclusion and
exclusion criteria. Then respondents were contacted through emails, WhatsApp messages,
and telephonic calls by the volunteers of the selected areas and the researchers. All the
respondents fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected for the data
collection. The link of online survey questionnaire was sent to each selected respondent.
Then they were requested to fill the questionnaire.
Statistical analysis
The data received from the respondents through Google form in the Google drive, exported
in the MS excel to arrangement and coding. Then the arranged data was exported to the trial
version of SPSS 20 for the analysis. The descriptive statistics (such as frequency,
percentage, mean and standard deviation) were used to summarize the categorical data. The
Chi-square test was applied to assess the association between the socio-demographic
variables and Internet addiction. The severity of the Internet addiction was presented
through graph (pie chart). Binary logistic regression was used to find odds ratio at 95%
confidence interval.
RESULT
Table No. 1 Socio-demographic Characteristics of the Respondents
Variables
Frequency
%
Age (in years)
14-25
26-35
36-55
56-80
Mean & SD
195
102
42
11
27.69±9.62
55.7
29.7
12.0
3.1
Gender
Male
Female
229
121
65.4
34.6
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
254
96
72.6
27.6
Education
High School
32
9.1

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 427
Variables
Frequency
%
Intermediate
Graduation
Post Graduation
39
136
143
11.1
38.9
40.9
Occupation
Students
Private job
Government job
Other
192
86
35
37
54.9
24.6
10.0
10.6
Family Monthly Income (In RS)
0-5000
5001-15000
15001-25000
25001-35000
Above 35000
41
51
58
46
154
11.7
14.6
16.6
13.1
44.0
Family Types
Nuclear
Joint
182
168
52.0
48.0
Residence
Rural
Urban
103
247
29.4
70.6
Table 1 shows that out of the 350 respondents, more than half belongs to age group 14-25
years and the mean age of them was 27.69±9.62 years. The proportion of male respondents
(65.4%) was comparatively high than females (34.6%). The mean age of male respondents
was 29.10±10.98 years and the mean age of female respondents was 25.03±5.39 years. The
proportion of the unmarried respondents (65.4%) was comparatively higher than married
respondents (27.6%). Majority of the respondents were students (approximately 55%)
followed by 24.6% of the respondents were doing private jobs, 10% respondents were doing
government job and 10.6% of them were either house wives or doing other jobs such as
farming, labor, and shop owner. Majority of the respondents belong to high family income
groups (44%). The proportion of respondents living in nuclear families (52%) and urban
areas (70.6%) was found comparatively high.
Table No. 2 Internet Addiction among the Respondents
Variables
Internet Addiction
Chi-squire
Value
df
P Value
Addicted
F (%)
Non Addicted
F (%)
Age (in years)
14-25
26-35
36-55
56-80
148 (75.9)
65 (63.7)
27 (64.3)
4 (36.4)
47 (24.1)
37 (36.3)
15 (35.7)
7 (63.6)
11.645
3
0.009*
Gender
Male
Female
168 (73.4)
76 (62.8)
61 (26.6)
45 (37.2)
4.175
1
0.041*
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
191 (75.2)
53 (55.2)
63 (24.8)
43 (44.8)
13.181
1
0.000**
Education
High School
Intermediate
Graduation
Post Graduation
22 (68.8)
28 (71.8)
103 (75.7)
91 (63.6)
10 (31.2)
11 (28.3)
33 (24.3)
52 (36.4)
4.931
3
0.177

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 428
Variables
Internet Addiction
Chi-squire
Value
df
P Value
Addicted
F (%)
Non Addicted
F (%)
Occupation
Students
Private job
Government job
Other
143 (74.5)
55 (64.0)
23 (65.7)
23 (62.2)
(25.9)
31 (36.0)
12 (34.3)
14 (37.8)
4.681
3
0.197
Family Monthly Income
(In RS)
0-5000
5001-15000
15001-25000
25001-35000
Above 35000
28 (68.3)
37 (72.5)
38 (65.5)
33 (71.7)
108 (70.1)
13 (31.7)
14 (27.5)
20 (34.5)
13 (28.3)
46 (29.9)
0.819
4
0.936
Family Types
Nuclear
Joint
136 (74.7)
108 (64.3)
46 (25.3)
60 (35.7)
4.509
1
0.034*
Residence
Rural
Urban
69 (67.0)
175 (70.9)
34 (33.0)
72 (29.1)
0.513
1
0.474
Significance difference at *0.05, **0.001
Table 2 shows that in the assessment of the Internet Addiction (IA), most of the respondents
148 (75.9%) belongs to age group 14-25 years were found internet addiction, respectively 65
(63.7%) in age group 26-35 years, 27 (64.3%) in age group 36-55 years and 4(36.%) in age
group 56-80 years. The proportion of IA was found high among male respondents 168
(73.4%) comparatively higher than female respondents 78 (62.8%). IA was found high
among unmarried respondent 191 (75.2%) than married respondents 53 (55.2%). Majority of
the graduate respondents 103 (75.7%) were found with IA. The proportion of the students
143 (74.5%) with IA was found comparatively higher than other occupations. IA was found
comparatively high in high family income groups. The respondents belong to nuclear family
136 (74.7%) and urban areas 175 (70.9%) were found with IA comparatively higher than
respondents belongs to joint family and rural areas. There was a significant association
found between IA and socio-demographic variables such as age (p<0.05), gender (p<0.05),
marital status (p<0.01), and family types (p<0.05).
Figure 1 shows that majority of the respondents (50.29%) were found with mild level of IA,
followed by 29.71% normal internet users, 18.29% with moderate level of IA and 1.71%
with severe level of IA.
Figure 1: Distribution of Internet Addiction among the respondents

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 429
Table 3 shows that the significant variables influencing the internet addiction (IA) are age,
gender, marital status, and family type as observed from the observation of the table 2.
These variables have been used to find out their risk and confidence interval. The result
indicates that the chance of IA among younger and early adulthood respondents have 1.4
times higher risk of IA, but age was not found as significant risk factor to IA. The risk of IA
was found 2.09 times higher among male with 95% CI (1.25-3.48) as compared to female
respondents. The unmarried respondents were found with 2.142 times higher risk of IA with
95% CI (1.04-4.44) as compared to married respondents. The respondents living in nuclear
family have 1.57 times risk of IA with 95% CI (0.97-2.54), but type of family was not found
significant risk factor of IA.
Table No. 3 The result of binary logistic regression analysis
Independent Variables
Odds Ratio
95% CI
Age
14-25
26-35
36-80
1.40
0.98
1 (Ref)
0.54-3.62
0.43-2.22
Gender
Male
Female
2.09
1 (Ref)
1.25-3.48
Marital Status
Unmarried
Married
2.142
1 (Ref)
1.04-4.44
Family type
Nuclear
Joint
1.57
1 (Ref)
0.97-2.54
DISCUSSION
The present study was conducted to assess the Internet Addiction (IA) among people living
in Varanasi district during the period of Lockdown due to COVID-19. An online survey was
done with the help of some volunteers living in these clusters. A total of 350 respondents
were selected in the present study. The result of the present study indicated that the majority
of the respondents using the internet were from the age group 14-25 years. The IA was
found comparatively higher among youth (75.9%). And there was a significant association
(p=0.09) between the age of the respondents and IA in the present study. The risk of IA was
found 7 times higher (odds ratio 1.40, 95% CI 0.54-6.62) among youth as compared to
middle adulthood and older adults. The present findings are similar to the previous studies
conducted by Jafari et al., (2014) in Iran, Hasan et al., 2020 in Bangladesh, Kwon et al.,
2020, and Lee et al. (2016) in South Korea.
The proportion of IA among male internet users was found comparatively higher (73.4%)
than female users (62.8%). The gender of the respondent was found significantly associated
with IA (p=0.041). And the risk of IA was 3 times higher (odds ratio 2.09, 95% CI 1.25-
3.48) among male respondents as compared to females. These findings are correspondence
to the previous studies conducted in India and other countries. (Ataee et al., 2014, Kwon et
al., 2020, Hasan et al., 2020, Lee et al, 2016, Jafari et al 2014, Goel at al., 2013, Gedam et
al., 2016, Arya et al., 2018 and Krishnamurthy and Chetlapallu, 2015). There was a
significant association found between the marital status of the respondents and IA in the
present study. And the risk of IA was found 4 times higher (odds ratio 2.142, 95% CI 1.04-
4.44) among unmarried respondents as compared to married respondents. There were similar

An Online Cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people
staying at their home during Lockdown due to COVID-19
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 430
findings were studies conducted by Ataee et al., 2014 and Jafari et al., (2014) in Iran had
found similar results.
The proportion of IA was found comparatively higher among the respondents having
education up graduation. There was no significant association found between academic
qualification and IA in the present study. In contrast to the present findings a study
conducted by Jain et al., (2020) in Jaipur Rajasthan, India had reported that IA has a
significant association with the educational qualification of the respondents. The result of
the present study indicated that most of the respondents were from high family income
group, but there was no significant association between the IA and family income of the
respondents. These findings are similar to the findings of previous studies conducted in
Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh (Arya et al., 2018), and Korea (Kwon et al., 2020).
The proportion of Internet users belong to nuclear families was high and IA was also found
among them compared to respondents belong to joint families. There was a significant
association found between family type and IA in the present study. The risk of IA was found
approximately 3 times higher (odds ratio 1.57 95% CI 0.97-2.54) among respondents
belongs to nuclear family, but family type of the respondents was not a significant risk factor
of IA. These findings are similar to a previous study (Kwon et al., 2020). The IA was found
high among respondents belong to urban areas compared to rural areas. But there was no
significant association found between the residence of the respondents and the IA. In
contrast to the present findings, a study conducted in Poland had reported that IA has a
significant association with residential area (Pawlowska et al., 2015).
The findings of the present study indicated that half of the total respondents were found with
a mild level of IA. There were about one-fifth of the respondents were found moderate and
severe levels of IA in the present study. These findings are correspondence to the previous
studies conducted in Palestine (Alhajjar, 2014), Iran (Ataee et al.,2014) and India (Arya et
al., 2018 and Sushma et al., 2018).
LIMITATIONS
There were several limitations of the present study such as; the data was collected through
an online survey. Therefore, there is a chance of hiding actual information by the
respondents. The information related to the purpose of use of the internet, duration of use,
and problem faced during the lockdown etc. were not asked from the respondents.
CONCLUSION
Findings of the present study highlight that the prevalence of Internet Addiction may
increase in the presence of stressful situations especially in the nation and international
crises such as lockdown due to COVID-19. There was about half of the respondents in the
present study were found with a mild level of IA, other hands one-fifth of the respondents
were affected with a moderate and severe level of IA. There was a significant association
found between IA and socio-demographic variables such as age gender, marital status,
occupation, and family type.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped us in the data collection and all those
respondents who participated in this study.
Conflict of Interest
The author declared no conflict of interest.
How to cite this article: Prakash S, Yadav J S & Singh T.B. (2020). An online cross-
sectional study to assess the prevalence of Internet Addiction among people staying at their
home during Lockdown due to COVID-19. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 8(3),
424-432. DIP:18.01.052/20200803, DOI:10.25215/0803.052