Prevalence of internet addiction and its association with mood and sleep disorders among young adults in Astana, Kazakhstan

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet has become the most essential tool in both studying and entertainment, by giving the fast and easy access to all the information for students. However, uncontrolled excessive use of internet negatively influences a person’s life, leading him to “Internet addiction” (IA) or “Problematic Internet use”. Despite the fact, that more than half of Kazakhstani population (55.8 %), which is approximately 10 million, uses internet on a daily base, there is a lack of studies on internet addiction in Kazakhstan. Therefore, our study aims were: (1) to estimate the prevalence of IA among university and college students; (2) to explore the association of IA with various factors, related to socio-demographics, family relationships, mood and sleep disorders, self-esteem, physical and social activities, and academic performance of the students.