Internet Addiction and its Effect on Sleepiness among Veterinary Professionals in Tamil Nadu

Internet addiction (IA) is a spectrum of disorder affecting the daily life of people and its impact is reflected in day time work efficiency. The present study was conducted among working veterinarians collected by employing online questionnaire to assess the degree of internet addiction using Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Daytime feeling of sleepiness in work place due to excess use of social media was assessed using The Eppworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) in the same questionnaire. Out of 348 Veterinarians responded to the survey, 47.7 and 52.3 percent were females and males respectively. The age group 25-40 years responded in large numbers (65.5%). IAT score revealed that 46% of Veterinarians had mild to moderate internet addiction while 52.3% were normal users of internet. There was no severe addiction to internet among veterinarians. Further, there were positive association(P<0.01) of internet addiction with all age groups with higher percentage in the younger age group 25-40 years. At the same time, no difference existed between males and females for using internet. Regarding ESS score, about 36.2%of veterinarians participated in this survey had feeling of sleepiness in the workplace while 47.1% had lower score. It could be inferred from the scores of two scales used in our study that more internet addiction score would have more ESS score. It can be surmised that internet addiction and daytime sleepiness is present in working veterinary professionals.