Internet gaming disorder twice as common among medical students

A recent Singapore meta-analysis reports a high prevalence of internet gaming disorder (IGD) among medical students from different countries at a rate of 6.2 percent, which is nearly twice than that in the general population.

“Given the high prevalence of IGD, medical teachers and medical school administrators should identify medical students suffering from IGD and refer them for intervention,” the researchers said. “The medical school psychiatric curriculum should cover IGD and increase the awareness of IGD among medical students.”

Six eligible studies were retrieved from the online databases of PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane CENTRAL, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Embase. The pooled sample included 2,236 medical students from Egypt (n=1), Indonesia (n=2), India (n=2), and Saudi Arabia (n=1). The definition of IGD depended on the individual studies but followed the general criteria set by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth edition and International Classification of Diseases 11.

The pooled prevalence rate of IGD was 6.2 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 3.1–12.1). Significant heterogeneity of evidence was reported (p<0.0001). [Front Psychiatry 2022;12:760911]

Meta-regression analysis revealed that the mean age of participants (Z, –0.11; p=0.9159) and the proportion of female students (Z, 1.69; p=0.0917) were notable sources of data heterogeneity but failed to reach significance, suggesting their limited moderating effect on the overall pooled prevalence of IGD.

In contrast, subgroup analysis revealed that IGD prevalence varied widely across different countries. Egypt, for instance, had the highest rate of IGD at 10.9 percent (95 percent CI, 7.3–16.1), while India had the lowest at 3.8 percent (95 percent CI, 2.7–5.0). Moreover, IGD prevalence was 8.8 percent (95 percent CI, 5.7–13.2) in Saudi Arabia and 6.1 percent (95 percent CI, 0.7–37.5) in Indonesia. The difference across countries was statistically significant (p<0.005).

Notably, Egger’s regression test showed that there was high publication bias evident in all six studies included (p=0.007).

“To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis that examined the prevalence of IGD among medical students in different countries,” the researchers said, adding that their approach was further strengthened by their use of multiple and varied databases.

Nevertheless, only six relatively small studies were eligible for inclusion, highlighting the niche nature of both the condition and the population. All included studies were cross-sectional, precluding causal or temporal analyses. There were no studies from East Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

“This limitation is noteworthy because it limits the generalizability of the results,” the researchers said, pointing out that future studies are needed from these regions.

“With the subgroup analysis finding differences in prevalence of IGD across different regions significant, further studies could be done to compare cohorts in such regions. Some of the research priorities that might be relevant to this current study include the need to also examine the psychological well-being of medical students who are gaming excessively,” they added.