Relation between Problematic Internet Use and Mental Health Status of Technical Nursing Students in Tanta City

Background: Students are believed to be at a high risk with a marked increase in their internet usage worldwide. Problematic Internet use (PIU) is characterized by a lack of control over the concern, encouragement, or problems related to anxiety, stress and depression as a result of its use. Aim of the study: to identify the relation between problematic internet use and mental health status of technical nursing students in Tanta city. Design: A descriptive design was used in this study. This study was conducted at two secondary technical nursing schools and the technical health institute (nursing branch) in Tanta city. Subjects: A convenient sample of 273 students in the above mentioned schools was included in the study. Three tools were used by the researchers to obtain the necessary data, the structured questionnaire schedule, General health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Results: More than half of the studied students had frequent problems related to internet usage (56.4%) and about one third of them (31.9%) had a significant problems. Slightly less than two fifths of the studied subjects (38.8 %) had poor mental health. Significant differences were observed between the studied level of internet usage and their age, sex and social level (P= ˂0.001, 0.009 and 0.034) respectively. Conclusion: There were strong significant positive correlation between the level of internet usage and students' mental health status. Recommendations: Further studies needed to develop and implement rehabilitation programs, for students with psychological problems related to excessive internet usage.