Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To identify the relationship between the internet addiction of adolescents and their Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile and Perceived Health Status, and thereby to detect the impact of internet addiction on the health of adolescents, produce the basic information necessary to develop a prevention program for internet addiction and to plan for a health promotion program. METHODS: This study was designed as a cross-sectional study, and the subjects were the second-grade students of three junior-high and three high schools located in the city of K in Kyung Gi Province. Out of 769 subjects, 764 completed the questionnaires (99.3%) ; 369 (48.3%) junior-high school students and 395 (51.7%) high school students. The questionnaires were composed of Young's Internet Addiction, Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile, Perceived Health Status, and general characteristics. We used t-test, ANOVA in means comparison between groups, X2-test in frequency analysis, and multiple regression analysis in multivariate analysis, using the SAS 8.1 (R) program. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile according to internet addiction status (severe addiction vs. other status, p< 0.0001). The Perceived Health Status scores was lowest in the severe addiction group (p< 0.001). There was also a significant negative correlation between internet addiction and Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile (p< 0.0001). The results of multiple regression showed that Young's Addiction Score was significant for the subjects' Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile after controlling for other variables (p< 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the severe internet addiction group had the lowest score in Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile and Perceived Health Status, which suggests that the addiction could have a negative effect on the health status of adolescents.

• Keywords: Internet addictionHealth promotion lifestyle profilePerceived health statusAdolescent