Prevalence and Risk Factors of Problematic Internet Use among Hungarian Adult Recreational Esports Players

Gábor Kósa, Gergely Feher, Lilla Horvath, Ivan Zadori, Zsolt Nemeskeri, Miklos Kovacs, Éva Fejes, Janos Meszaros, Zoltan Banko and Antal Tibold
Additional contact information
Gábor Kósa: Centre for Occupational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7624 Pecs, Hungary
Gergely Feher: Department of Primary Health Care, University of Pécs, 7623 Pecs, Hungary
Lilla Horvath: Centre for Occupational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7624 Pecs, Hungary
Ivan Zadori: Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Education and Regional Development, University of Pécs, 7633 Pecs, Hungary
Zsolt Nemeskeri: Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Education and Regional Development, University of Pécs, 7633 Pecs, Hungary
Miklos Kovacs: Centre for Occupational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7624 Pecs, Hungary
Éva Fejes: Hospital of Komlo, 7300 Komlo, Hungary
Janos Meszaros: Centre for Occupational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7624 Pecs, Hungary
Zoltan Banko: Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law, Faculty of Law, University of Pécs, 7622 Pecs, Hungary
Antal Tibold: Centre for Occupational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, 7624 Pecs, Hungary

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Esports are highly prevalent in modern culture, particularly among young people, and are a healthy hobby for the majority of users. However, there is a possible link between video gaming (including esports) and problematic internet use (so-called internet addiction, IA), mostly involving adolescents. Methods: Here we present an online survey focusing on the prevalence and risk factors of internet addiction among adult esports players. Demographics included age, gender, family type, type of work, working years and daily internet use. Medical conditions associated with IA such as smoking, alcohol and drug intake, hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, musculoskeletal pain and history of depression were also recorded. Results: Overall, 2313 players including 176 females (7.6%) and 2137 males (92.4%) participated in our online survey. Age distribution was the following: 18–25 years 90.3% (2088/2313), 26–35 years 7.95% (184/2313), 36–45 years 0.86% (20/2313), 46–55 years 0.82% (19/2313), 56–62 years 0.04% (1/2313) and 62 years or older 0.04% (1/2313). Internet addiction was detected in 19.9% of players (461/2313) based on the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire. In a multivariate analysis internet addiction was significantly associated with age between 18 and 25 (OR: 1.675, p = 0.002), being single (OR = 1.505, p = 0.014), internet use > 6 h daily (OR = 4.338, p < 0.001), having < 3 children (OR: 2.037, p = 0.023) and having secondary employment (OR = 1.789, p = 0.037). Regular alcohol intake (OR = 18.357, p < 0.001) and history of depression (OR= 5.361, p = 0.032) were also strongly correlated with IA. Conclusion: This is the first study from Hungary investigating the prevalence and risk factors of internet addiction among adult esports players. One out of five adult gamers suffered from IA. Our study also draws attention to increased risk within this group and risk factors such as younger age, family status and type of employment.

Keywords: esports; internet addiction; epidemiology; demographic; medical condition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3204/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3204/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3204-:d:767043

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().