Internet Use and Internet Addiction Disorder among Medical Students: A Case from China

Internet is used more and more widely and extensively among university students. In order to keep abreast of Internet use among medical students, provide basis for cultivating correct and reasonable Internet use habits of them, based on expert consultation and literature review, a “Questionnaire on University Students’ Internet Behavior” is designed by the author, method of randomly stratified cluster sampling is employed to conduct questionnaire survey on 380 students from three medical academies in Xi’an in China, and the investigation results are analyzed through statistics. According to the result, the reported rate of medical students’ Internet surfing is 92.3%; with respect to the frequencies of Internet behaviors, it differs among medical students; close attention is paid to sending & receiving e-mails, searching for information, chatting, browsing current affairs, et al; while little attention is paid to business negotiation, falling in love and sexual behavior; in the prevalence rate of Internet addiction disorder, boys’ is obviously higher than girls’. In all, Internet behaviors of medical students are characterized by high need-hierarchy, concentrated value orientation and various types. But Internet addiction disorder is also rather conspicuous. Therefore families, universities and the society shall attach importance to it and take measures if necessary.