Awareness and use of internet services among first MBBS students

Background: Internet is used for various reasons in the field of medicine which include teaching, diagnosis, conduct of medical examination and research. It has become the world's biggest library where retrieval of scientific re-sources is only a mouse click away thus providing a wide range of information. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on of 142 first year MBBS students at PESIMSR, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Data was collected with the help of a questionnaire. Results: The present study revealed that all students were using internet and felt it to be a useful tool. Most of the individuals felt that use of internet was time saving and utilized them for various activities. Conclusions: Though majority of the students have knowledge and awareness about the internet usage it is not being utilized properly as an educational tool. Attention should be paid to bring about interventional measures that can improve computer usage skills and access among students to reduce the occurrence of internet addiction behaviour.