Internet addiction shows strong comorbidity with depression, anxiety, and stress among health sciences students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2031: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across multiple included studies, internet addiction was strongly and consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and stress; the review calls this the strongest and most consistent finding. → Baghcheghi Nayereh; Koohestani Hamid Reza 2026

Evidence¶

Baghcheghi Nayereh; Koohestani Hamid Reza 2026¶

Baghcheghi Nayereh; Koohestani Hamid Reza. (2026). A scoping review of internet addiction and academic performance among health sciences students. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-04883-x

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review's narrative synthesis reports, citing Sayed (2022), that Egyptian pharmacy students' IA "was strongly correlated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress"; Indian dental students with depression were six times more likely to have IA, and Thai medical students with probable IA had 1.58 times higher likelihood of depression.

"Among Egyptian pharmacy students, IA was strongly correlated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress [11]. This strong, bidirectional relationship with depression [15, 26] suggests IA may be both a cause and a consequence of psychological distress"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Psychological distress, particularly depression, consistently predicted poorer academic outcomes among university students across the reviewed literature — related
• Many students reported stress, anxiety and related wellbeing challenges while studying online, with over 50% of respondents naming stress or anxiety as key challenges — related
• Distress tolerance and intolerance of uncertainty are consistently associated with mental health problems — related
• Internet addiction is associated with adverse physical health outcomes including musculoskeletal discomfort and daytime sleepiness — related
• Type D personality with self-defeating humor style and problematic mobile phone multitasking during study are risk factors for internet addiction — related
• Internet use is a significant predictor of increased academic burnout among medical students — related
• Reported prevalence of internet addiction among health sciences students varies widely across studies, from 6% to 84% — related
• Internet addiction and frequent smartphone use are associated with higher surface learning and lower deep learning among medical students — related
• Stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms show predominantly negative associations with academic performance in medical students — related