Diagnóstico de la relación entre el uso excesivo de las TICs y síntomas depresivos y ansiedad en estudiantes de medicina, Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

A descriptive cross-sectional study among students of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cuenca was conducted to assess the magnitude of the excessive use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the variation in terms of age, sex, marital status and career, and its association with depressive and anxiety symptoms. The validated questionnaire submitted to a random cluster of 333 students, included in addition to the gathering of demographic information, questions probing the use of ICT and depressive and anxiety symptoms. The concept of Relative Risk associated with a Confidence Interval of 95% was used in the statistical analysis. Results revealed that the average age of the sample population was 22 years, 37,2% use ICT excessive, and 18,3% show depressive symptoms and 39,8% signs of anxiety. Variables significantly associated with the excessive use of ICT are students younger than 19 years (RR 2,04; CI 95% 1,31-3,20), male gender (RR 1,36; CI 95% 1,03-1,80) and the Medical Technology field of study (RR 1,83; CI 95% 1,28-2,63). Excessive use of ICT is not associated with the marital status. However, the statistical analysis revealed the existence of a significant positive correlation between problematic ICT use and the frequency of students with depressive symptoms (RR 1,88; CI 95% 1,45-2,44) and anxiety (RR 2,61; CI 95% 1,64-4,15).