Association between electronic device use and health status among a middle-aged and elderly population: a cross-sectional analysis in the UK Biobank

AIM: Few previous studies have investigated the impact of multiple types of electronic devices on health status, and the moderating effects of gender, age, and BMI. Our aim is to examine the relationships between the use of four types of electronics and three health status indicators in a middle-aged and elderly population, and how these relationships varied by gender, age, and BMI. SUBJECT AND METHODS: Using data from 376,806 participants aged 40–69 years in the UK Biobank, we conducted a multivariate linear regression to estimate the association between electronic device use and health status. Electronics use was categorized as TV watching, computer use, computer gaming, and mobile phone use, and health status included self-rated health (SRH), multisite chronic pain (MCP), and total physical activity (TPA). Interaction terms were utilized to assess whether the above associations were modified by BMI, gender, and age. Further stratified analysis was performed to explore the role of gender, age, and BMI. RESULTS: Higher levels of TV watching (B(SRH) = 0.056, B(MCP) = 0.044, B(TPA)= −1.795), computer use (B(SRH) = 0.007, B(TPA)= −3.469), and computer gaming (B(SRH) = 0.055, B(MCP) = 0.058, B(TPA)= −6.076) were consistently associated with poorer health status (all P < 0.05). Contrastingly, earlier exposure to mobile phones (B(SRH) = −0.048, B(TPA)= 0.933, B(MCP) = 0.056) was inconsistent with health (all P < 0.05). Additionally, BMI (B(computer use-SRH)= 0.0026, B(phone-SRH)= 0.0049, B(TV-MCP)= 0.0031, and B(TV-TPA)= −0.0584) exacerbated the negative effects of electronics use, and male (B(phone-SRH) = −0.0414, B(phone-MCP) = −0.0537, B(phone-TPA)= 2.8873) were healthier with earlier exposure to mobile phones (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the adverse health effects associated with watching TV, computer use, and computer gaming were consistent and were moderated by BMI, gender, and age, which advances a comprehensive understanding of the association between multiple types of electronic devices and health status, and provides new perspectives for future research. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-023-01886-5.