Abstract

Introduction: Internet addiction is one of the addictive behaviors and typically described as a state where an individual has lost control of the internet use and keeps using internet excessively to the point where he/she experiences problematic outcomes that negatively affects life. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and associated factor of internet addiction among regular under graduate students at Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Science, from July1, 2021 to December 1, 2021. Method: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted in Haramaya University College of Health and Medical Sciences. The total of 216 under graduate students was enrolled in this study. The simple random sampling methods were employed to collect the representative samples. Internet Addiction was measured byYoung’s Internet Addiction test (YIAT). Logistic regression model were used to evaluate the association between IA and associated factors. P-value andadjusted odds ratio within 95 % level of confidence (CI) was used to interpret the results. Result from total of 216 study participants the overall magnitude of internet addiction among under graduate Haramaya University College of Health and Medical Sciences students was 57.9%. Factors such as current Khat use [AOR =1.94, 95% CI (1.05, 3.56)] and having psychological distress [AOR =1.15, 95% CI (1.032, 3.407)] were found to be significantly associated with magnitude of internet addiction. Conclusion The currentstudy shows that fifty seven percentof undergraduate students in Haramaya University were addicted to the internet. So internet addiction was associated with using current Khat user and having psychological. Therefore we recommended students need to be educated about safe, valuable, and healthy practice of internet use and better to counsel on substance use and its consequences to overcome the anticipated increase in internet addiction.