A Systematic Review on Effect of Electronic Media on Diet, Exercise, and Sexual Activity among Adolescents

CONTEXT: Electronic media has become a part of day-to-day life for all, and particularly more so for children and adolescents. Exposure to electronic media may be beneficial as well as harmful. AIM: The aim of the study is to systematically synthesize existing published and non-published empirical evidence on the effect of exposure to electronic media on diet, exercise, and sexual activity. METHODOLOGY: Two reviewers independently searched online databases such as MEDLINE, CENTRAL, and EMBASE. We applied no language, date, or publication restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomized control trials that assessed the effect of exposure of electronic media on diet, exercise, and sexual activity in participants between 5 and 19 years. STUDY SELECTION, DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently screened studies identified in electronic search and independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. DATA ANALYSIS: We had planned to use the risk ratio or odds ratio for dichotomous data, and mean difference (MD) or standardized MD for continuous data. However, as included studied differed in types of intervention and reporting of outcomes, we did not undertake meta-analysis. MAIN RESULTS: All included trials were parallel randomized controlled trials except for one that was a crossover trial. Eight studies reported the effect of electronic media on diet and exercise, two on diet, two on exercise, and one on sexual activity. Quality of evidence was rated as “very low” for all outcomes due to too little information or too few data to be able to reach to any conclusions. CONCLUSIONS: There is a little body of evidence that limits conclusions. We need to comprehend as to how to swap undesirable effects of electronic media and make it more desirable. REGISTRATION OF SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: This systematic review has been registered at PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews (Registration number: PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018086935) available at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=86935.