Evaluating of internet addiction levels in academics and relations between internet addiction and health problems related

This study was carried out in order to detect the duration of internet usage of academic personnel according to their ranks working at İnönü University, their level of internet addiction and health problems that occur as a result of their internet and computer usage.In the study 300 academician chosen randomly stratified sampling method from 1037 academician working at İnönü University according to their ranks.In the collection of data, 14 questions related to demographic features of academicians, 5 questions on health problems of academicians that occur as a result of internet and computer usage and 19 questions on Internet Addiction Scale developed by Young and tested by Çakır and Horzum in the sense of validity and reliability were used. Statistical analysis of data was done with SPSS 11.5 package program. In the analysis of data; number, percentage, average, chi-square, in independent groups t-test and ANOVA variance analysis were used.70.7% of participants were male, 29.3% were female, 98.3% were normal internet usage while 1.7% are risky internet users. While there is significant difference between gender, connection to internet during evening and night, duration of internet connection and internet addiction total scale point; the relation between marital status, connection to internet during morning and afternoon internet addiction scale point average was found to be non significant.It was detected that 10.0% of participants have the complaint of watery eyes 1.7% of them have the complaints of numb hands while using the internet or computer. While there is a significant relation between the usage of internet or computer and health problems such as insomnia and pain at wrists, there is no statistically meaningful relation between neck pain and watery eyes.According to these results, the majority of participants are composed of males, there is no internet addictive usage but there are risky internet users. The most common problems observed among individuals who have high internet addiction point are numb hands, watery eyes and insomnia. The relation between duration of internet and computer usage, gender, connection to internet during evening and night and internet addiction points were found significant.According to these results, since internet addiction might become a public health problem in the following years, it is suggested to prepare education programmes by public health nurses for risky group academicians about indications of internet addiction and health problems that may occur. In order to achieve data that will represent whole country, a longer-term study with a wider sample group is needed.