Psychosocial predictors of Facebook addiction in Bangladeshi undergraduate medical students
Description
The objective of the current study was to determine the prevalence of Facebook addiction and to assess the social and psychological factors that affect the likelihood of Facebook addiction among Bangladeshi medical students. This cross-sectional study involved participants from four public medical colleges in Bangladesh that were chosen at random from a total of 37 public medical colleges between the months of July and November 2021. We enrolled 720 medical students from a total of 5000 medical students (4*1250) from selected four medical colleges using two-step stratified random sampling and adjusting for 10% nonresponse and 5% missing value with the estimated sample. Firstly, a request letter outlining the objectives of the study was sent to the principal offices of the respective medical colleges. In collaboration with the respective medical college administration, the research team then organized a presentation and question-and-answer session on the study protocol for each year's students. Finally, 36 students were chosen at random from each year, from first to fifth year, for a total of 180 students from each medical college. The semi-structured self-reported questionnaire included a total of 122 questions and was divided into eight sections. The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale was used to assess Facebook addiction, while the Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7, Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9, Perceived Stress Scale PSS10, Chen Internet Addiction Scale CIAS, and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index PSQI were used to assess anxiety, depression, perceived stress, internet addiction, and sleep quality. To investigate the effect of different psychosocial and behavioral characteristics on the likelihood that respondents have Facebook Addiction, multiple regression was used. Analysis was conducted using Facebook Addiction as the dependent variable and a number of sociodemographic and behavioral factors as the independent variables, including age, sex, income, place of residence, housing status, type of family, physical activity, duration/cost and time of internet use, personal, social and academic and romantic relationships, internet addiction, depression, perceived stress, anxiety, sleep quality, etc. The final results were presented with Wald statistics, level of significance, odds ratios, and 95% confidence intervals for odds ratios for each of the predictors. Insufficient personal income, subpar academic performance, anxiety, stress, and depression were all found to be significant contributors to the emergence of Facebook addiction, according to our study. The likelihood of developing a Facebook addiction is however decreased by residing with parents and having healthy family ties.