Evaluation of access and use of internet by Pakistan Medical Students.

Abstract

Background: Internet increasingly being used globally in imparting and delivering medical education. Not only
for health care training of professionals but also the material available there for medical students is lacking in developing countries.
Aims: To evaluate the access, pattern of use in general and for professional purposes by medical students.
Methodology: The study was descriptive and cross-sectional in nature, the questionnaire was self-administered
semi-structured and was pilot tested on a sample of 5 students from Muhammad Medical College before the final
administration on students from different colleges. The study was carried out in4different colleges (Punjab Medical College, Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Nisthar Medical College and Muhammad Medical College) of two
provinces (Punjab and Sindh) of Pakistan. The sample size taken was 200 students from 3rd year to Final year;
response rate was 97 (48.6%).
Results: Amongst the 97 respondent, 59 (60.8%) were males and 38 (39.2%) were female users of internet, majority students started using internet in last two years (n=35.1%). Majority students (36.2%) spent up to 5 hours
weekly on internet, while 26.6% spent more than 10 hours per week. 91.7% said that they used internet for nonacademic use whereas only 13.4% used for academic purpose. In non-academic use, 20.1% used to play
games, 12.8% on watching movies and 32.3% on non-academic study. For academic purposes majority (32.9%)
used internet to get better understanding of subjects, 24.7% for research purposes, 30.9% for making presentations and 24.7% for making assignments. Regarding academic benefit of internet 48.8% said it was useful while
50.5% said it was of no use. Among all users 48.4% (61% males and 39% females) said that they have missused internet (eg. Watching porn, chatting with opposite sex, hacking etc.).
Conclusion: Our study shows that most students do not use internet for academic purposes as much as they do
for other activities. Negative use of internet is common practice.
Remarks Steps should be taken to encourage students to use internet in more positive and discourage negative
use.