Internet-related variables negatively predicting quality of life and sleep during the pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is, in many ways, specific. In addition, the Internet usage during the pandemic has taken on a new dimension. On one hand, maintaining social contacts with friends/families to reduce psychological impacts of isolation, providing access to entertainment and even materials guiding physical exercises are all realized through information and communication technologies. All these are also the strategies recommended by the WHO. On the other hand, longer Internet hours coupled with the specifics of the Internet usage during a pandemic, could lead to exploring particular contents (pornography) as well activities (social networks, games). The aforementioned could negatively reflect on important mental health factors in daily living such as quality of life or insomnia.Aim: The aim of our study was to investigate if quality of life and sleep during the pandemic are predicted by Internet-related variables such as the general use of Internet. Methods and methods: This cross-sectional study is a part of a wider international multicenter research. The study was approved by Ethics Committee of the Clinical Centre of Serbia and the Board of Clinic of Psychiatry, Clinical Centre of Serbia. The study included 3330 participants (71.1% females, average age was 40.78 ±12.21 years). The participants filled in an anonymous online self-report questionnaire, comprising the following: 1) socio-demographic questionnaire; 2) questionnaire on Internet use during the pandemic (designed for the purpose of this study), assessing whether participants had more frequent use of Internet, and performed any of the online activities more (e.g. playing online games, using Instagram, Facebook (FB)), or browsed any of the Internet contents more (e.g. sexual contents) during the pandemic; 3) the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI); 4) the COVID-19 - Impact on Quality of Life (COV19- QoL) scale. Multivariate liner regression was used to produce two models, with COV19-QoL during the pandemic and the ISI score as outcomes, and Internet-related variables as S595Abstracts predictors, controlling for gender, age, and the number of persons living in the household. Results: Both linear regression models were significant, explaining about 6% of variance each. Worse QoL during the pandemic was predicted by more time on Internet during the pandemic, more frequent gaming, FB use, and searching for sexual content, whereas the more frequent use of Instagram had no predictive effect. Higher insomnia severity was predicted by more time spent on Internet during the pandemic, and more frequent search for sexual content, while other Internet-related variables had no predictive effects. Conclusions: The findings of this study speak in favor of the negative association between the general and specific use of Internet on side, and the quality of life and sleep during the pandemic, on the other. These findings may have important implication for both prevention and further research.