In Switzerland, 3.8% of the population aged 15 and over in 2017 used the internet in a way defined as problematic (see definition). More men (4.3%) were affected than women (3.3%). The proportion of persons with problematic use decreases continuously with age. Foreign nationals and persons with a lower level of education are more likely to use the internet to a problematic extent.
This indicator is part of the Monitoring System Addiction and NCD (MonAM) of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
With the widespread use of the internet and social media, new forms of addiction have developed, such as internet use that is problematic for health. As a result, society has had to deal with these new forms of addiction more and more in recent years and take countermeasures.
In terms of the Addiction Strategy, special attention is paid to internet use, because it is important to be able to respond flexibly to new dangers with appropriate preventative and therapeutic measures.
For 2017, this indicator was calculated on the basis of data from the Swiss Health Survey (SHS).
It shows the share of people aged 15 and over with problematic internet use. The recording of problematic internet use is based on the CIUS scale (Compulsive Internet Use Scale), which measures the degree of problematic internet use. For 2017, the 8-item short form of the CIUS according to Gmel et al. (2019) was applied, which takes the following aspects into account:
Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Tel. +41 58 462 95 05
media@bag.admin.ch
Tel. +41 58 463 60 45
obsan@bfs.admin.ch
https://www.obsan.admin.ch/en/contact