SynthesisFrontiers in psychology2022
Internet Addiction and Its Associated Factors Among African High School and University Students: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors Associated With Digital Addiction: Umbrella Review.JMIR mental health · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions for Digital Addiction: Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- The Worldwide Prevalence of Internet Addiction among Medical Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Relationship between loneliness and internet addiction: a meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Psychological determinants and coping mechanisms associated with internet addiction disorder among university students in Bhubaneswar, India.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association between behavioral addiction and psychological disorders among medical students in Egypt, Sudan, and Libya: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Patterns and Correlates of Co-occurring Smoking, Alcohol Use, Gambling, and High Internet Use Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Türkiye.Journal of community health · 2026Article
- Perspectives of adolescents and young people on Digital Health Interventions and their impact on health knowledge.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Toward healthy behavior: fear of missing out, smartphone, social networking addiction, and life satisfaction among medical students at Tanta University, Egypt.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Problematic Internet use among resident physicians at St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Poor sleep quality among bedtime smartphone user medical students in Ethiopia, 2024.Sleep medicine: X · 2024Article
- Personality Traits and Internet Addiction among Adolescent Students: The Moderating Role of Family Functioning.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Problematic usage of the internet among Hungarian elementary school children: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Internet addiction, social phobia, substance abuse, and depression in the university setting: a cross-sectional study in the southern region of Morocco.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Internet Addiction and Physical Activity among Polish and Portuguese Students in the Final Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Physical Activity, Screen Time, and Academic Burden: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Health among Chinese Adolescents.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Validation of the Amharic version of Internet Addiction Test-20: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The relationship between depression, healthy lifestyle behaviors and internet addiction: a cross-sectional study of the athlete university students in Turkey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Internet addiction is characterized by excessive and uncontrolled use of the internet affecting everyday life. Adolescents are the primary risk group for internet addiction. Data on internet addiction is lacking in Africa. Thus, this review aimed to determine the pooled prevalence of internet addiction and its associated factors among high school and university students in Africa. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted using electronic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of science, Hinari, and Google scholar) to locate potential studies. Heterogeneity between studies was checked using Cochrane Q test statistics and I Results: A total of 5,562 studies were identified among the five databases. Of these, 28 studies from 10 countries with 14,946 high school and university students were included in this review. The overall pooled prevalence of internet addiction among the students was 34.53% [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 26.83, 42.23, I Conclusion: Almost one-third of university and high school students in Africa are addicted to the internet. Male students, those from urban areas, and those who use the internet for more than 4 h per day have higher odds of internet addiction. Thus, we recommend that health planners and policymakers pay attention to the use of the internet and internet addiction in Africa.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.