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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0032

Yarı kentsel Hindistan'daki tıp öğrencilerinde problemli internet kullanımı, internet kullanım örüntüleri ve genel benlik değeri (Problematic internet use, internet use patterns, and global self-worth among medical students in semi-urban India)

PROBLEMATIC INTERNET USE, INTERNET USE PATTERNS AND GLOBAL SELF-WORTH AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN SEMI-URBAN INDIA

Problematic internet use was identified in 78% of medical students. Although no association with sex or age was found, late-night use and weekend social networking emerged as key patterns.

The aim was to examine the relationship between problematic internet use (PIU), internet use patterns, and global self-worth among medical students in semi-urban India. In a cross-sectional analytical study, 464 medical students aged 18 years or older, from any year of study, attending two tertiary care centers in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire-9 (PIUQ-9), the Inventory of Cognitive Distortions (ICD), and the Self-Perception Profile for Adults (SPPA). The prevalence of PIU was 78% (78.2% in the discussion section); the PIU group included 135 women and 228 men, while the non-PIU group included 48 women and 53 men. No significant association was found with sex (p < 0.60) or age (p < 0.63). The timing of internet use differed significantly between the groups (p < 0.001); 221 participants in the PIU group and 42 in the non-PIU group reported using the internet between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Total weekday use was 6 hours in the PIU group and 5 hours in the other group. Total duration, entertainment use, and social networking use differed significantly on both weekdays (p < 0.001) and weekends (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001), whereas no difference was found in academic use (weekdays p = 0.43; weekends p = 0.89). Among the predictors of self-worth, physical appearance (β = 0.27; p < 0.001), adequate financial provision (β = 0.27; p < 0.001), intelligence (β = 0.301; p = 0.002), and close relationships (β = 0.223; p = 0.009) were associated with higher self-worth, while weekend social networking use (β = -0.297; p = 0.019) and cognitive distortions (β = -0.010; p = 0.040) were associated with lower self-worth. The authors note that this prevalence of PIU exceeds that reported in the Kolkata (41%) and Calicut (57.4%) cohorts, as well as global meta-analytic estimates (19% to 41%), and suggest that this may be due to the broader cutoff used for the PIUQ-9 (>20), which also captures at-risk users. In conclusion, problematic digital use in demanding educational environments may reflect a maladaptive coping pattern rather than merely recreational behavior, and early identification and supportive psychiatric intervention are recommended.

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