Pattern of Internet Use among Undergraduate Clinical Medical Students in a Nigerian University during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Internet use has become a way of life for the majority of higher education students all around the world especially in light of the recent COVID 19 pandemic. In the wake of the pandemic and accompanying lockdown globally, the internet serves as a functional tool through which undergraduates can easily interact with others and get information. The aim of this study is to determine the pattern of internet use among undergraduate clinical medical students in a Nigerian University. Thiscross sectional descriptive study was carried out among fourth to sixth year medical students of Bingham University. The sampling method used was a stratified proportionate sampling of clinical medical students who consented to the study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire.Out of 383 students, 147 (38.4%) were males and 236 (61.6%) females. The mean age of the study participants was 23.5 ± 3.3 years for males and 22.3 ± 2.2 years for females. All the study participants have access to the internet with 99.5% using internet for study purposes and 95% using internet on a daily basis. The most frequent problem encountered while using the internet was slow speed. The male students were better in their internet search skills than the female p = 0.003. In conclusion, internet use is widespread among medical students in Bingham University and can be integrated into the medical curriculum to ease study, save time and cost of learning especially in this era of the global COVID 19 pandemic.