Prevalence of Addictive Behaviors in Medical Students and Their Association With Stress

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of the addictive use of the internet, smartphone, and alcohol in medical students, the association of this addictive use with stress, and the mediating roles of resilience and self-esteem in this association. METHODS: A total of 866 medical students completed measures of three addictive uses as well as psychological scales for stress, resilience, and self-esteem. Correlation analyses and parallel mediation analysis were carried out. RESULTS: The prevalence of potential-risk and high-risk users was 5.8% and 1.7% for internet use, 5.4% and 2.2% for smartphone use, 22.6% and 5.3% for alcohol use, respectively. All three addictive behaviors tended to increase in terms of prevalence or mean score according to an increase in a students’ grade. Stress was positively correlated with internet use (r=0.324, p<0.001) and smartphone use (r=0.347, p<0.001). Resilience and self-esteem were found to be mediators in the association between stress and internet use or smartphone use. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that addictions in medical students are as prevalent as in a general population and that internet use and smartphone use may be better explained by a stress-addiction model with resilience and self-esteem as mediators than alcohol use.