Effect of internet use for health information and internet addiction on adolescents female high school’ health lifestyle

Abstract

Background and objective: There is not enough evidence linking attitudes toward using the Internet to gather health information and adolescents’ lifestyles. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of Internet use for gathering health information and Internet addiction on adolescents’ health lifestyles in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A descriptive correlational cross-sectional design was utilized to collect data from a convenience sample of 456 high-school-aged female adolescents, who completed self-administered questionnaires consisting of demographic data, attitudes toward Internet use, Internet use for seeking health information, Internet use to communicate about health, Internet addiction, and adolescent health lifestyles.

Results: The adolescent female high school students’ average age was 16.88 years (SD = 1.05); Regression analyses revealed that the main effects of students’ attitudes toward the Internet, along with how using the Internet to seek health information and to communicate about health, and Internet addiction significantly (p < .001) affected these female high school students’ lifestyles subscales. However, some predictors had varied effects on lifestyle subscales.

Conclusions: The general consensus of the research about Internet use among young people to date shows that adolescents use the Internet to communicate about their own health problems, but they do not address all of the dimensions of healthy lifestyle. This study will help identify lifestyle risk factors among adolescent female high school students, such as malnutrition, physical inactivity, not taking full responsibility for one’s health and not communicating enough about one’s health.