Peer-Reviewed Study

Risk Factors and Outcomes of Internet Gaming Disorder Identified in Korean Prospective Adolescent Cohort Study

Oct 2022 🇰🇷 Journal of Behavioral Addictions PEER-REVIEWED

Published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, this iCURE-cohort study — with Hae Kook Lee among the co-authors — followed Korean adolescents for a year to see how internet-gaming-disorder-associated risk related to physical-health and daily-life outcomes, not just psychological ones. The authors report that adolescents who screened at risk for gaming disorder at the study's start had lower physical activity and less sleep than lower-risk peers, and reported more dry-eye symptoms, more musculoskeletal pain, and more near-miss accidents — with these gaps widening over the following year rather than narrowing. The authors describe gaming-disorder-associated risk as linked to a broader pattern of physical strain in adolescents, not only mood or behavior. TechKids Foundation cites this as evidence that gaming-related risk in children carries physical, not only psychological, warning signs.

Physical-health gap widened over 12-month follow-up

Adolescents in the group at risk for internet gaming disorder showed lower physical activity, less sleep, and more dry-eye symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, and near-miss accidents at baseline than lower-risk peers, with the gap widening rather than narrowing over the following year.

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CITATION

Byeon, Gihwan, Sun-Jin Jo, Jong-Ik Park, Hyunsuk Jeong, Hae Kook Lee, and Hyeon Woo Yim. "Risk Factors and Outcomes of Internet Gaming Disorder Identified in Korean Prospective Adolescent Cohort Study." Journal of Behavioral Addictions 11, no. 4 (2022): 1035–1043. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2022.00071

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