Background:

The use of the internet is growing exponentially, observing similar problems to addiction, bringing a new term: internet addiction (IA). Studies in young people registered a problematic internet consumption of up to 30%, however, demographic profiles in health personnel have not been described.

Objective:

To determine the proportion of AI in health workers (HW) and compare it with non-health workers (NHW).

Methods:

An observational, cross-sectional, comparative, survey-type study was carried out, that included HW and NHW. The evaluation instrument was The Internet Addiction Test Scale validated Spanish version, considering as cyber addiction those participants with ≥ 50 on the scale.

Results:

190 participants were included, 95 HW and 95 NHW; the mean age was 35.5 ± 8.5 and 35.7 ± 8.5, (p = 0.85) respectively. A cyber addiction percentaje of 2.1% was found in HW and 11.6% in NHW (p = 0.01).

Conclusions:

In the present study, being HW and being a woman behaved as protective factors to suffer from IA. On the other hand, although the proportion of IA was relatively low, two-thirds had a problematic use of the internet, spending more than a fifth of the day on the internet.