The impact of online game addiction on adolescent mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization in 2019 determined internet gaming disorder (IGD) to be mental health disorder. Among adolescents, excessive online gameplay has become a lifestyle. It associated with psychological symptoms (psychopathological symptoms and life satisfaction), social health (social interactions), and physical health (general health and body mass index). The emergency department has now become a global problem. AIM: This study aims to analyze the impact of online game addiction on adolescents using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects were searched extensively in PubMed, Sage, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. Searches used the keywords “online game addiction,” “mental health,” and “adolescent.” The inclusion criteria in the Pustaka study are the type of source journal, the article is written in English, the full text is available, the publication year limit is 2011–2021, and the subject’s age is 13–18 years old. RESULTS: We identified 81 articles, of which 20 were deemed relevant for this systematic review. This review study shows that problematic online gaming behavior has strong negative correlation with various subjective health outcomes. Further analysis using Review Manager 5.3 for meta-analysis showed that adolescents with online game addiction could increase mental health disorders by 1.57 times than adolescents without online game addiction (adjusted odd ratio = 1.57 (1.28–1.94); p ≤ 0.001. CONCLUSION: Early prevention efforts relevant to adolescents from the IGD, namely, the wise use of the internet/ gadgets, are the only option to avoid or reduce the symptoms of internet addiction and online games.