Prevalence and Risk Factors of Internet Addiction Among Employed Adults in Japan

Background: The prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) among employed adults has not been reported using a large sample. To clarify the actual status of addictive Internet use among employed adults, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and the risk factors of IA and at-risk IA among employed adults in Japan.
Methods: This cross-sectional study surveyed all junior and senior high school personnel in Shimane Prefecture, a rural area in Japan. Eligible participants included 3,211 junior and senior high school personnel (1,259 men and 1,952 women). Participants completed a questionnaire on their activities and factors related to Internet use.
Results: The prevalence of IA and at-risk IA was 0.03% and 4.82%, respectively. Furthermore, game playing was shown to be the Internet activity most closely associated with at-risk IA.
Conclusions: This study showed that around 5% of school personnel in a rural area in Japan are at risk for developing addiction to the Internet and that using the Internet for game playing is related to at-risk IA. Our results suggest that employed adults should be instructed to use the Internet properly.

© 2017 Hideki Tsumura et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)