Asia Pacific Environmental and Occupational Health Journal

The frequency of internet use by adolescents aged 13-18 years in Indonesia has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. With almost all teenagers in Indonesia access internet via mobile phones, the high intensity of internet use may affecttheir physical and mental health. Objective: The study was conducted to determine the factors associated with physical and mental health in teenage internet users of Makassar, Indonesia. Method: This study used an analytic observationalmethod with a cross-sectional study approach at four high schools in Makassar in February 2023. A total of 616 research samples were taken using proportional random sampling technique. Data collection was carried out using aquestionnaire distributed to respondents, and analyzed by three methods: univariate analysis, bivariate analysis, and multivariate analysis. Findings: The results show that there was an association between school status, education level,internet usage activity, and intensity of internet use with adolescents physical and mental health. School status is the most dominant variable affecting adolescent physical health as the dependent variable with the largest odds ratio of 1.09.Whereas in the mental health variable, class level is the most dominant variable influencing the variable with the oddsratio of 0.90. Conclusions: There is a significant association between school status, education level, internet use activityand internet use intensity with physical and mental health in adolescents. The most dominant variable affecting adolescents physical and mental health is the variable of school status, whereas no significant association was found between gender, class level, parent’s education background, and type of parent’s occupation with physical and mentalhealth in adolescents. Further research combining quantitative and qualitative approach is needed to explore more aboutphysical and mental health among this group regarding the impact of internet usage.