Relation between Internet Addiction and Educational Burnout among Students in Faculty of Health Management and Medical Informatics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences: A Cross - Sectional Study

Background: With growing usage of Internet in daily life, there is a risk of addiction to using the Internet among users especially students, who use the Internet as a tool for their educational duties. Addiction to the Internet may be a risk factor for educational burnout, which may cause educational failure. This study was designed to determine the relation between Internet addiction and educational burnout among students in the faculty of Management and Medical Information Sciences. Materials and Methods: This is a cross - sectional study in which all of the students of the Faculty of Management and Medical Information Sciences of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, in 2015, were included. The data were collected using Young’s Internet Addiction questionnaire and Maslach Educational Burnout questionnaire. The independent t - test, ANOVA, and linear regression were used to analyze data by using SPSS - v19 (P 0.05). Results: The total mean SD Internet addiction score was 25.35 16.44. A significant relationship was found between addiction to the Internet and variables such as sex and residential location (P 0.05). The total means ± SD of educational burnout score was 41.83 14.22. Significant relationship between educational burnout and demographic variables was not found. There was a significant relationship between Internet addiction and educational burnout and its subscales including emotional exhaustion, cynicism subscales, and inefficacy subscale (P 0.05). Conclusions: Given the positive relationship between Internet addiction and educational burnout among students, it’s necessary for authorities to declare the risk of overuse of Internet for students and encourage them to optimize the use of this technology to prevent outcomes such as educational burnout.