title: Self-rated Health and Internet Addiction in Iranian Medical Sciences Students; Prevalence, Risk Factors and Complications.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Self-rated health is a brief measure for general health. It is a comprehensive and sensitive index for prediction of health in future. Due to the high internet usage in medical students, the current study designed to evaluate the self-rated health (SRH) in relationship with internet addiction risk factors in medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross sectional study conducted on 254 students of Qom University of Medical Sciences 2014. Participants selected by two stage sampling method including stratified and simple random sampling. The Young's questionnaire of internet addiction and SRH question used for data collection. Chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression used in data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 79.9% of students reported their general health good and very good. The student's mean score of general health was higher than the average. In addition, the prevalence of internet addiction was 28.7%. An inverse significant correlation observed between SRH and internet addiction score (r=-0.198, p=0.002). Using internet for Entertainment, using private Email and chat rooms were the most important predictors of affecting to internet addiction. Moreover, internet addiction is the most predictors of SRH and increased the odds of bad SRH.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The good SRH of medical students was higher than general population but in health faculty' students were lower than others. Due to the effect of internet addiction on SRH and increasing trend of internet use in medical students, as well as low age of participants, attention to psychological aspects and the job expectancy in future, can effective on increasing the good SRH.
authors: Health policy and promotion research center, Department of Epidemiology and biostatistics, School of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom,/Iran;
authors: Abolfazl
authors: A
authors: Mohammadbeigi
authors: Deputy of Health, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Babolsar, Iran;
authors: Farzaneh
authors: F
authors: Valizadeh
authors: MSc Student in health services management, Department of Human Services, Electronic Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran;
authors: Seyede Roqaie
authors: SR
authors: Mirshojaee
authors: Hazrate Masoumeh Hospital, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom/Iran;
authors: Robabeh
authors: R
authors: Ahmadli
authors: Health Vic Chancellor, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak / Iran;
authors: Mohsen
authors: M
authors: Mokhtari
authors: Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran;
authors: Ebrahim
authors: E
authors: Ghaderi
authors: Modeling in Health Research Center, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran;
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Ahmadi
authors: Health Vic Chancellor, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak / Iran;
authors: Heshmatollah
authors: H
authors: Rezaei
authors: Health Promotion research Center, Department of Epidemiology and biostatistics, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors: Hossein
authors: H
authors: Ansari
keywords: Internet addiction; Iran; Self-rated health; Students; risk factors