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October 02, 2020
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Screen time on multiple devices linked to poor health habits

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Increased screen time using multiple devices was linked to poor health habits, including poor dietary patterns and low sleep quality, according to a study published in BMC Public Health.

“Adults are exposed to so much screen time, it’s as if we live our lives for our screen. In our study, heavy users of screen-based devices logged, on average, nearly 18 hours a day ,” Chris Wharton, PhD, assistant dean of innovation and strategic initiatives at Arizona State University's College of Health Solutions, told Healio Primary Care. “It’s important to step back and decide if this amount of screen exposure matches how we want to use our time, and the extent to which we are prepared for its impact on our health.”

TV Watching
Increased screen time using multiple devices was linked to poor health habits, including poor dietary patterns and low sleep quality, according to a study published in BMC Public Health. Source: Adobe Stock.

Wharton and colleagues evaluated results from a survey that assessed screen time on multiple different types of devices along with dietary habits, sleep, perceived stress, self-rated health, BMI and physical activity. The survey was administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) — a crowdsourcing platform that has been shown to be valid and reliable in research — on adults in the United States who owned a TV and at least one additional device with a screen.

A total of 926 adults were included in the study. Participants’ screen time across all devices was categorized as light (median = 7 hours per day), moderate (median = 11.25 hours per day) and heavy (median = 17.5 hours per day).

Photo of Chris Wharton
Chris Wharton

Researchers found that heavy screen users reported the least healthy dietary patterns compared with moderate and light users. Additionally, heavy users had the poorest health-related characteristics, such as self-rated health, compared to moderate and light users.

When separately examining dietary patterns by type of screen used, Wharton and colleagues found that heavy users of TV and smartphones had the least healthy dietary patterns compared with heavy users of other devices.

They also found that heavy users of all types of devices had the lowest physical activity, self-reported health, quantity and quality of sleep, and the highest amount of perceived stress compared with light and moderate users.

Wharton and colleagues determined that binge-watching was significantly associated with having less healthy dietary patterns such as more frequent fast-food consumption and eating family meals in front of the TV, and higher perceived stress.

In a press release, Wharton said he is working on another study in which participants forgo all screen use from the time they get home from work to when they go to bed over a period of 2 weeks. He noted the initial results suggest people spend more time on hobbies, cooking, being physically active and spend more face-to-face time with friends and family when not using screens during that time.

Wharton explained that screen time may have mixed effects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Firstly, because we are necessarily getting less social interaction, FaceTiming with family, occasionally checking in on friends via social media, and even taking in TV shows and other screen-based entertainment can provide us all comfort and some connection,” he said. “But the more screen time we log, generally the literature tells us the less physical activity we get and the worse diet we consume.”

Therefore, Wharton stressed that “we really need to be careful about the context of ‘screen immersion’ and what that means for our engagement in things that make us healthier.”

References:

Vizcaino M, et al. BMC Public Health. 2020;doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09410-0.

Eurekalert. ASU study finds association between screen time use, diet and other health factors. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/asu-asf092820.php. Accessed September 30, 2020.