Impact of internet addiction during COVID-19 on anxiety and sleep quality among college students of Bhubaneswar city

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 initiated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and over a period of time, the infection outspread across the world in a rapid pace. To protect the people and to further limit the spread of infection, lockdown was declared in most parts of the world including India. As all people were forced to stay indoors during this pandemic, internet was the only source of entertainment whose overuse has side effects on anxiety and sleep quality. This study is aimed to know the impact of Internet addiction during COVID-19 on anxiety and sleep quality among college students of Bhubaneswar city. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a web-based cross-sectional, questionnaire study. It administered 475 students from six colleges. The students were assessed by a proforma containing demographic details, patterns of internet use, Youngs Internet Addiction Test, Generalised Anxiety disorder score, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 21.0 using Chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. RESULTS: The mean age of the study group was 18.81 ± 1.189. Out of 475 students, 60.6% were female and 39.4% were male. 23.6% and 13.4% of recruited students had severe internet addiction and anxiety disorder, respectively. The mean global PSQI score in the study was 6.356 ± 1.88. About 84.6% of the students had poor global sleep quality score. All components of sleep quality were significantly associated (P = 0.000) with different degrees of internet addiction except sleep duration (P = 0.589) and efficiency (P = 0.767). CONCLUSION: Females were highly addicted than males. The study findings specified that students' excessive internet usage leads to anxiety, and affects mental health. Monitoring and controlling students' internet addiction through informative sessions on how to use the Internet adequately is useful.