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Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND: Excessive use of screen devices and screen time are increasing health problems in children. We aim to describe the electronic screen device usage and determine the factors associated with their use among preschool-attending children in a suburban population in Sri Lanka. METHODS: A cross...

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Autores principales: Rathnasiri, Asanka, Rathnayaka, Harsha, Yasara, Nirmani, Mettananda, Sachith
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9251924/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35787276
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-022-03452-6
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author Rathnasiri, Asanka
Rathnayaka, Harsha
Yasara, Nirmani
Mettananda, Sachith
author_facet Rathnasiri, Asanka
Rathnayaka, Harsha
Yasara, Nirmani
Mettananda, Sachith
author_sort Rathnasiri, Asanka
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Excessive use of screen devices and screen time are increasing health problems in children. We aim to describe the electronic screen device usage and determine the factors associated with their use among preschool-attending children in a suburban population in Sri Lanka. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a suburban Medical Officer of Health area of Sri Lanka from January to March 2020. All children aged between 36–59 months attending ten randomly selected preschools were recruited. Data were collected using a parent-administered questionnaire and analysed using binary logistic regression in SPSS. The prevalence of electronic device usage, the average time spent on each device, and factors associated with individual device usage were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 340 children (Male-48%; mean age-50.1 ± 6.9 months) were recruited. Electronic devices were used by 96% of children. The most common devices were the television (87%) and the smartphone (63%). Of the children who used electronic devices, 60% exceeded the recommended screen time limit of one hour per day, 21% used devices for more than two hours per day, and 51% commenced using devices by two years of age. The higher education level of the father was independently associated with the use of smartphones and laptops and daily screen time of more than one hour (p < 0.05 for all). Male sex and being the only child were significantly associated with the use of smartphones, whereas maternal employment was associated with the use of laptops (p < 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Electronic screen devices were used by 96% of preschool-attending children, and over 60% used them for more than the recommended daily upper limit of one hour. Higher paternal education, maternal employment and being the only child were significantly associated with electronic screen device use.
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spelling pubmed-92519242022-07-05 Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka Rathnasiri, Asanka Rathnayaka, Harsha Yasara, Nirmani Mettananda, Sachith BMC Pediatr Research BACKGROUND: Excessive use of screen devices and screen time are increasing health problems in children. We aim to describe the electronic screen device usage and determine the factors associated with their use among preschool-attending children in a suburban population in Sri Lanka. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a suburban Medical Officer of Health area of Sri Lanka from January to March 2020. All children aged between 36–59 months attending ten randomly selected preschools were recruited. Data were collected using a parent-administered questionnaire and analysed using binary logistic regression in SPSS. The prevalence of electronic device usage, the average time spent on each device, and factors associated with individual device usage were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 340 children (Male-48%; mean age-50.1 ± 6.9 months) were recruited. Electronic devices were used by 96% of children. The most common devices were the television (87%) and the smartphone (63%). Of the children who used electronic devices, 60% exceeded the recommended screen time limit of one hour per day, 21% used devices for more than two hours per day, and 51% commenced using devices by two years of age. The higher education level of the father was independently associated with the use of smartphones and laptops and daily screen time of more than one hour (p < 0.05 for all). Male sex and being the only child were significantly associated with the use of smartphones, whereas maternal employment was associated with the use of laptops (p < 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Electronic screen devices were used by 96% of preschool-attending children, and over 60% used them for more than the recommended daily upper limit of one hour. Higher paternal education, maternal employment and being the only child were significantly associated with electronic screen device use. BioMed Central 2022-07-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9251924/ /pubmed/35787276 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-022-03452-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Rathnasiri, Asanka
Rathnayaka, Harsha
Yasara, Nirmani
Mettananda, Sachith
Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title_full Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title_fullStr Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title_short Electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of Sri Lanka
title_sort electronic screen device usage and screen time among preschool-attending children in a suburban area of sri lanka
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9251924/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35787276
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-022-03452-6
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