European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background:Gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior. An increasing prevalence of 0.3%-0.7% has been observed among Indian adolescents. Young individuals (i.e., between 18 and 24 years old) were more vulnerable to become internet addicts than old individuals.The inclusion of gaming disorder in ICD-11 follows the development of treatment programs for people with health conditions identical to those characteristic of gaming disorder in many parts of the world, and will result in the increased attention of health professionals to the risks of development of this disorder.
Aims And Objective: To study the prevalence of Internet gaming disorder among professional students attending a private university in Chennai.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted among 404 professional students of engineering and medical courses in private university for study duration of 3 months. A simple random sampling technique was used where 202 medical students and 202 engineering students were selected with 50 students from each batch. Data collection tool is Self administered questionnaire with IGDS9-SF scale. Data was analyzed by SPSS software.
Results: The mean age group of participants was 22±4years. The average playtime of the students were 4 hours but for IGD people it takes 7-10 hours.There is 1.2% of Internet gaming disorder among the students. Medical students are less affected with internet gaming disorder than engineering students. More than 71.56% were males who played the games than females. Most of the participants (81.37%) used mobile phones for playing online games .Conclusion:Gaming disorders are on a rise, which has lead students to psychosocial disturbances, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, sleep disturbances, head ache, lack of social activities, and impairment in education. So, it is time to regulate the usage of electronic devices, internet and video games.