Gaming disorder among medical college students from India: Exploring the pattern and correlates

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the extant literature, apart from few published case reports describing patients with severe form of gaming disorder (GD), there is a lack of studies describing the pattern and correlates of GD existing in the Indian settings. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the extent and pattern of gaming behavior in a sample of medical college students from India and explore its association with the sociodemographic, psychological (depressive symptoms), and Internet gaming characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: < 0.01 as highly significant results. RESULTS: < 0.01**) representing greater depressive symptom severity were associated with statistically significantly greater scores on the IGDS9-SF, indicative of a higher risk for having GD. CONCLUSIONS: GD is a cause of concern among medical students in India. There is an urgent need to create awareness about it among students and concerned authorities. Further, there is a need to develop effective screening and treatment strategies suited for our population. The risk factors identified in the current study can be utilized to screen those at high risk of developing the same.