Abstract

Objective: To adapt the Addiction Profile Index (API) for internet use and addiction in order to develop an internet addiction questionnaire better suited to the definition of addiction to be used for clinical purposes.
Method: The questions of the API were adapted to measure the use of the internet. After pilot application and feedback, a new scale of 18 items was developed. Included in the study were 103 randomly selected first-year students of a private high school and the entire first year cohort of a medical faculty (n=51). The Internet Addiction Scale developed by Nichols and adapted to Turkish by Canan was used for the validation of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was reapplied to the subjects fifteen days later.
Results: Cronbach’s ? coefficient for the total APIINT was 0.88, and retest correlation was 0.85. Three factors were obtained using explanatory factor analysis that represented 57.03% of the total variance. A correlation coefficient of 0.81 was found between APIINT and Internet Addiction Scale. The area under the ROC curve was 0.97.With a total APIINT cut-off score of 2, both the scale’s sensitivity and specificity were 0.90, respectively. A screening form consisting of 2 questions with a cut-off score 3.5 had a sensitivity of 0.72 and its specificity was 0.83.
Conclusion: The results show that the APIINT is a valid and reliable questionnaire that can be used for high school and university students.

Key words: Addiction, internet, scale