Social network addiction and mental disorders in human medicine students at a Peruvian university

Objectives: To determine the relationship between addiction to social networks and the presence of mental disorders in medical students at a university in Cajamarca in the year 2024. Material and Methods: The study had a quantitative approach, non-experimental, cross-sectional and correlational design. It involved the participation of 114 students, who filled out a survey consisting of two questionnaires: "Addiction to Social Networks" and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Abbreviated Scales (DASS-21), which are validated with Combrach's alpha 0.95 and 0.933 respectively. Results: Respondents are mostly aged 16-20 years and 54.4% were female. A high prevalence level (98.2%) of addiction to social networks was calculated; meanwhile, the prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress were 51.2%, 46.5% and 43%, respectively. A significant association was found between depression and stress with respect to social network addiction (p=0.01 and p=0.02, respectively); however, no significant relationship was found between the anxiety dimension and social network addiction (p=0.158). On the other hand, there was a significant relationship between anxiety (p=0.003) and stress (p=0.02) with sex, as well as between anxiety (p=0.024) and depression (p=0.025) with academic grade. Conclusion: Depression and stress were found to be related to social network addiction in medical students studying basic sciences.