Screentime has dominated humanity since the existence of television. Screentime here refers to time spent in front of a digital screen, such as computer monitors, laptops, television and hand phones. With the recent surge in digital media advancements, time is increasingly spent in front of a digital screen for various activities that span from education to leisure.
A quick google search would
reveal many articles that talk about the many evils of screentime for children,
both physically and mentally. For instance, it promotes obesity, gives rise to
mental health issues and damages a child’s cognitive development. But, is
screentime really that bad for kids? HappiNest Family decided to examine the latest
research findings on the health effects of screentime on children and
adolescent.
Last year, Stiglic &
Viner published an important umbrella review paper in BMJ which looked at the effects of screentime on the
health and well-being of children and adolescents. So what’s the big deal about
this paper? And why umbrella? An umbrella review examines a whole bunch of
systematic reviews. Each systematic review examines multiple individual studies
to obtain a collective result which has credibility and strength if done
properly. Therefore, findings from an umbrella review would thus be even more
credible and strong! So what does the evidence say about screentime? We’ve
summarised the important points in a table below.
Source: Stiglic N, Viner RM.
Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents:
a systematic review of reviews. BMJ
Open 2019;9:e023191.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023191
|
Health concerns |
Type of screen time |
Is there evidence of an association? |
Important remarks |
|
Overweight, obesity |
Television |
Moderately strong evidence. |
Low evidence for infants. |
|
Overweight, obesity |
Computer and overall screen time |
Insufficient evidence. |
Few studies with inconsistent evidence |
|
Unhealthy diet |
Television |
Moderate evidence |
Overweight/obese kids being more susceptible to higher food intake
compared to normal weight kids) |
|
Unhealthy diet |
Computer screentime |
Weak evidence |
|
|
Depression |
Overall screen time |
Moderately strong evidence |
Curvilinear relationship between screentime and depressive symptoms; i.e. less depression with more screentime until a certain point where more screentime increases depression. |
|
Depression |
Social media screen time |
Weak |
|
|
Poor quality of life |
Overall screen time |
Moderate |
|
|
Other mental health outcomes (e.g. behavioural problems, anxiety,
poor psychosocial health, hyperactivity, attention deficit) |
Overall screen time |
Weak |
Weak evidence largely due to lack of studies rather than weak
associations |
|
Metabolic syndrome |
Overall screen time |
Weak |
|
|
Poorer cardiorespiratory fitness |
Overall screen time |
Weak |
|
|
Poorer cognitive development and lower educational attainments |
Television screen time |
Weak, except among infants whereby television screentime had no benefits and was harmful to cognitive development. |
|
|
Poor sleep outcomes. |
Overall screen time |
Weak |
|
|
Eating disorder symptoms |
Overall screen time |
No clear evidence |
|
|
Suicidal ideation |
Overall screen time |
No clear evidence |
|
|
Cardiovascular risk |
Overall screen time |
No clear evidence |
|
|
Asthma |
Overall screen time |
No clear evidence |
|
|
Pain |
Overall screen time |
No clear evidence |
|
Credible evidence is available to link screentime with
only a few health concerns; i.e. body fat
build up, an unhealthy diet, depression and poorer quality of life.
But is screentime unrelated to the other health concerns
listed? Have we been over estimating the harms of screen time? Not really so. The
review did mention that most individual studies had several limitations. Most
studies focused on looking at time spent looking at the screen but not the
quality or type of content viewed, which could affect behaviour. For instance, playing
violent games daily increases an adolescent’s risk of depression 2. Moreover, most studies looked at television
screentime, but lesser attention on other types of screentime such as mobile
devices, video games or social media, which are actually more modern forms of
screen use 1. Therefore, until more high quality and relatable
studies are available, how screentime affects these other health issues will
still be in question.
Nevertheless, even with current findings, it is clear that uncontrolled
screentime is bad for your child. Moderation and parental guidance is key to ensure
healthy doses of screentime. Here are some links which you can
visit to learn how to manage your child’s screen time. Take care!
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/screen-time/art-20047952
References:
1) Stiglic
N, Viner RM. Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and
adolescents: a systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open 2019;9:e023191.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023191
2) Tortolero SR, Peskin MF, Baumler ER, et al. Daily violent video game
playing and depression in preadolescent youth. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014;17(9):609‐615. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0091
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