Peer-Reviewed Study

Recurrence of Internet Gaming Disorder in Korean Adolescents: A 24-Month Follow-up Study

Oct 2024 🇰🇷 European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry PEER-REVIEWED PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

Published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, this iCURE-linked study by Sun-Jin Jo, Hae Kook Lee, and colleagues followed 1,452 Korean middle-school gamers for two years to see how often internet gaming disorder, once it eased, came back. The authors report a cumulative relapse rate of about 16 percent over the follow-up period — well above the roughly 4 percent rate at which the disorder had first emerged in the same sample — and identify starting to game before entering primary school as a factor associated with a substantially higher chance of relapse. The authors frame early gaming onset as a marker worth attention in relapse-prevention efforts, alongside continued monitoring after a young person's gaming-disorder-associated symptoms first improve. TechKids Foundation cites this as evidence that gaming-disorder-associated patterns in adolescents can recur, not simply resolve once and stay resolved.

16.1% cumulative relapse rate over 24 months

Among 1,452 Korean middle-school gamers followed for two years, the cumulative relapse rate for internet gaming disorder (16.1%) exceeded the initial incidence rate (3.6%) observed in the same cohort.

Pre-school gaming onset: adjusted incidence rate ratio 2.43 (95% CI 1.21–4.87)

Adolescents who began gaming before starting primary school had a significantly higher adjusted rate of gaming-disorder-associated relapse than those who started later, per the study's regression model (P = 0.012).

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CITATION

Jo, Sun-Jin, Hae Kook Lee, Hans-Jürgen Rumpf, Hyunsuk Jeong, and Hyeon Woo Yim. "Recurrence of Internet Gaming Disorder in Korean Adolescents: A 24-Month Follow-up Study." European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 34, no. 5 (2025): 1637–1647. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-024-02598-1

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