title: Is there a digital divide among school students? an exploratory study from Puducherry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The advent of internet has triggered a growth in provision of more interactive health promotion messages, which are likely to enhance the potential for behavior change especially among children. We intended to find out the determinants and prevalence of use of internet among school students of Puducherry.
  
  
  METHODS
  An exploratory study was carried out among all the students belonging to the standards VI to IX (n = 421) in three schools from urban areas and two schools from rural areas of Puducherry. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire which sought information on sociodemographic details (age, gender, standard of education, occupation of father, and type of school), use of internet, and place of accessing internet, hours of use, and reasons for use was utilized. The statistical significance between the categorical variables was done using chi-square test. All significance tests were two-tailed and statistical significance was defined as a value of P < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Majority (72.2%) were boys. Less than one-third (23.8%) of the students used internet. The use of internet was found to be significantly higher in mid-adolescents (Adjusted OR: 2.205); among boys (Adjusted OR: 3.835) and students from urban areas (Adjusted OR: 4.694).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a geographical and gender divide observed among the school children in the use of internet. Taking the steps to bridging the digital divide will help utilize internet as a media for health promotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramalingam
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Sitanshu Sekhar
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kar
keywords: Digital divide; health promotion; school children