Investigation of computer use among five universities in Xi'an

Objective To investigate computer use among college students in Xi'an, and to explore differences in sex, grade and major.Methods A multi-stage stratified cluster sampling was conducted among 1 491 college students from 5 universities in Xi'an.Time spent in daily computer use, as well as content and purpose of computer use was collected.Results The average time spent in daily computer use time of students was (3.05±2.22) h, and average years spent in computer use ranged from 1 to15 years, with an average of (4.98±2.76) years; About 80.9% students reported watching movies or listening to music was the primary purpose of computer use, followed by for study (76.6%), for chatting (68.9%) and for games (57.7%).The differences between gender, grade and major were significant in time spent in daily computer use (P<0.05); and in ranking of computer use purposes.Conclusion Most of college students in Xi'an use computer for leisure and study.Considering too much time spent in computer use, it' s necessary to inform those students on health implications of rational computer use.