Investigation of problem internet use relationship with sleep, physical activity and nutrition habits in adolescents

Introduction: Internet is a widespread and constantly growing communication network where many computer systems are interconnected. While the internet provides many opportunities to the person in home, school and business life, it also causes some negativity. Internet overuse can be seen in almost every age group, especially children and adolescents. With this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship among adolescents with pathological internet addiction and nutrition, physical activity and sleep. Material-Methods: This research is a cross-sectional epidemiological research and was carried out in 6 high schools determined by random cluster sampling method from the high schools affiliated to Afyonkarahisar Provincial Directorate of National Education. In these schools, 951 students attending the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades were included in the study. In the research, structured questionnaire and 'Young Internet Addiction Test-Short Form (YİBT-KF)' were used as data collection method. Results: The average age of the students was 15.3 ± 1.0 years and 42.3% (n = 402) were girls and 57.7% (n = 549) were boys. The prevalence of internet addiction among all participating students was 12.1%. It was observed that the age, gender, parental education and employment status, location, course success and frequency of internet addiction did not change (p> 0.05). Internet addiction was found to be significantly more frequent among students who were internet users for 5 years or more, who were on the weekdays and weekends, 2 hours or more, and who did not comply with the restrictions on internet use (respectively; p = 0.001, p <0.001, p <0.001, p = 0.009, p <0.001). When the relationship between internet addiction and problems caused by internet use was examined, it was found that all problems were significantly more frequent in the dependent group (p <0.05). While there was no significant relationship between students' regular sports and physical activity habits and internet addiction (p> 0.05), sleep problems were found to be more common in the dependent group (p <0.001). It was found that the habit of eating meals, consuming sweet snacks, eating salty snacks, consuming sweetened carbonated drinks were more frequent in the dependent group, and the frequency of breakfast habits was significantly lower (p = 0.001, p = 0.004, p <0.001, p <0.001, respectively). p <0.001). Conclusions: It has been observed that problematic internet use in adolescents, in other words, internet addiction may cause health problems such as nutritional disorders, sleep problems, absenteeism, head, neck, waist, back, and knee pain. Therefore, in order to prevent internet addiction, trainings on this issue should be increased and adolescents should be encouraged to live healthy. Keywords: Internet addiction, Puberty, Nutrition, Physical activity, Sleep problems.