Usefulness of Young's Internet Addiction Test for clinical populations

Abstract

Background: Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is one of the most widely used scales for assessing Internet addiction. Aims: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the value of IAT for subjects clinically diagnosed with Internet addiction. Methods: A total of 52 subjects, whose chief complaint and most serious behavioral problem was Internet addiction, were enrolled at an Internet-addiction clinic associated with a university hospital. The IAT was administered to assess the existence and severity of Internet addiction. Subjects were classified according to the severity guidelines of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) and according to the duration of their Internet addiction. Results: The mean IAT score of our clinical subjects was 62.8 ± 18.2, which was below 70, the cut-off point indicating significant problems. The IAT detected only 42% of the clinical subjects as having significant problems with Internet addiction. No significant differences in IAT scores among those with mild, moderate and severe degrees of Internet addition were found, and no association between IAT scores and duration of illness was observed. Conclusions: IAT scores were not significant correlated with clinical severity and duration of illness in a clinical population. This instrument had limited clinical utility for evaluating the severity of Internet addiction. Considerable caution is required in interpretations of IAT scores.

• Clinical validity
• Internet addiction
• Young's
• Internet Addiction Test

Acknowledgments and disclosure of interest

— This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2010-0007738). There was no other disclosure of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.