The Association of Problematic Online Gaming Behavior With Mental Well-Being and Depressive Symptoms Among Students of Professional Colleges in Rishikesh

Background and objective Excessive online gaming is becoming a behavior pattern, and it has been recently classified as a medical illness and added to the International Classification of Diseases-11 (ICD-11), termed as "gaming disorder". This condition can be severe enough to result in significant impairment in psychological health. In light of this, we conducted this study to analyze the relationship between problematic online gaming and mental well-being among students of professional colleges in Rishikesh. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among professional college students in Rishikesh on problematic online gaming behavior (POGB). The Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire-Short Form (POGQ-SF) was used to assess POGB among the participants. The five-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) were used to assess mental well-being and depressive symptoms respectively. Results The prevalence of POGB was 27.4% among our cohort, and its association with mental well-being as well as depressive symptoms was statistically significant. The study participants with poor mental well-being and mild or moderate to moderately severe depressive symptoms had higher odds of developing POGB. Conclusion POGB has been recently identified as a behavioral addiction and it is often neglected. A significant proportion of the study participants exhibited problematic gaming behavior.