{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,15]],"date-time":"2026-03-15T03:57:56Z","timestamp":1773547076010,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,30]],"date-time":"2022-12-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672358400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The use of social media was one of the most common way to keep in touch with friends and family during confinement. For higher education students, the fact that their universities were closed was a major change in their lives. The aim of this study is to relate the prevalence and type of social media with Internet addiction and mental health of university students in a district of Portugal during COVID-19 confinement. Mental health was studied by applying the reduced version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) and to measure the Internet use and dependence, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was used. The study (cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational) used an online questionnaire, conducted on Google\u00ae Forms and the link was sent to 4450 students, in the months of April to June 2020, during the confinement. A total of 329 valid questionnaires were obtained. We can conclude that regarding mental health, students in the 18\u201324 age group, single or divorced and who are not in a relationship, and with worse academic results, show worse levels of mental health. It is noteworthy that the students with the same characteristics also have the highest levels of addiction to internet.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph20010664","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,2]],"date-time":"2023-01-02T04:07:09Z","timestamp":1672632429000},"page":"664","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Social Media Use and Its Association with Mental Health and Internet Addiction among Portuguese Higher Education Students during COVID-19 Confinement"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Ana Paula","family":"Oliveira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal"},{"name":"Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8125-5384","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joana Rita","family":"Nobre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal"},{"name":"Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1092-7825","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Henrique","family":"Luis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal"},{"name":"Unidade de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o em Ci\u00eancias Orais e Biom\u00e9dicas (UICOB), Faculdade de Medicina Dent\u00e1ria, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Teresa Ambr\u00f3sio, 1600-277 Lisbon, Portugal"},{"name":"Center for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechcare), Polytechnic of Leiria, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2233-5752","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luis Soares","family":"Luis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechcare), Polytechnic of Leiria, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal"},{"name":"School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic of Leiria, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1174-0744","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lara Guedes","family":"Pinho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nursing School, University of \u00c9vora, 7000-811 \u00c9vora, Portugal"},{"name":"Comprehensive Health Research Center, 7002-554 \u00c9vora, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8306-8702","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"N\u00faria","family":"Albacar-Riob\u00f3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5620-3478","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Sequeira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nursing School of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Group Inovation and Development in Nursing (NursID), Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o em Tecnologias e Servi\u00e7os de Sa\u00fade (CINTESIS), 4200-450 Porto, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lee, J., Solomon, M., Stead, T., Kwon, B., and Ganti, L. 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