Introduction:

Although the internet provides various facilities, its inadequate and excessive use can cause Internet Addiction Disorder, especially among university students, who browse the web for entertainment, communication and academic activities, and even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, when education switched to online. This disorder results in several detrimental consequences such as diminished student performance and aggravation or triggering of other psychiatric conditions.

Objective:

To evaluate the presence of Internet Addiction Disorder in medical students at the state of Alagoas, Brazil.

Methods:

Quantitative, cross-sectional and analytic study conducted among medical students from two universities in the state of Alagoas during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was gathered through an online form with a social-demographic questionnaire, the Internet Addiction Test, and variables (sex, age, semester of study, city of birth, grade point average). The data was analysed in the SPSS 24 and JASP 0.14 programs.

Results:

The survey was applied to 325 students, 97.2% of whom affirmed to have increased their internet usage during the pandemic. The average score in the Internet Addiction Test was 32.5, with 80.6% displaying some degree of disorder, 66.8% a mild dependence, and 13.8% moderate dependence. A higher prevalence of the disorder was found among males, who were also shown to be more used to making new friendships through the internet, to hide what they are doing online, and to spend more time logged in than planned. The compulsion was more severe in lower social classes, initial semester and those who came from public university, cities with a population of less than 50.000, and immigrants. There was a negative correlation between lower final semester grades and higher grades in the Internet Addiction Test (Pearson -0,121, p-value: 0,045).

Conclusions:

The data of this study point to a major possibility of medical students developing Internet Addiction Disorder, with more severe dependence among those who are males, from lower social classes, in earlier periods of study, students from public universities, from cities with a population of less than 50.000 inhabitants and immigrants. The presence of Internet Addiction Disorder was inversely proportional to academic performance.

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