Investigation of the Differential Power of Young's Internet Addiction Questionnaire Using the Decision Stump Tree

BACKGROUND: Internet addiction is one of the serious consequences of recent advances in the use of social media. Early detection of Internet addiction is essential because of its harms and is necessary for timely and effective treatment. AIM: The aim of this study was to use data mining and an artificial intelligence algorithm to estimate the differential power of each question in the Young Internet Addiction Test and build a decision stump model to predict which item in the questionnaire can be representative of the whole questionnaire. METHODS: This is a descriptive study conducted at the University of Tabriz, in which 256 undergraduate students were selected in randomized cluster sampling, and they completed Young's IAT (Internet Addiction Test) questionnaire and some demographic questions. The data were statistically analyzed with SPSS and were divided into two groups, normal and addicted, by using a cut-off point. Also, the data of the subjects was used to model the decision stump tree in WEKA. The clustering item was the normal and addicted specifier. RESULTS: The study shows that Cronbach's alpha of the IAT is 0.88, which shows good internal integration of subjects that are used to develop the model in WEKA (the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis). Data analysis showed that by using the second question of this questionnaire as the root of the decision stump tree model, it is possible to distinguish between Internet addicts and healthy users with 82% accuracy using this model. CONCLUSION: The study shows innovative ways in which decision stump trees and data mining can help to improve methods used in Clinical Psychotherapy and Human Science. Regarding this, the study showed that early detection of Internet addiction would be possible by using the 2(nd) question of the IAT. Also, early detection can result in cost-effectiveness for the whole healthcare system.