The amount of screen time and length of time spent sleeping can both be used to independently predict excessive weight gain among children and should be considered for informing anti-obesity measures, new research has found.
Researchers examined links between the amount of time children aged between two and 11-years old spent using electronic devices such as tablets, playing video games or watching TV, and the duration of their sleep and their weight.
At the beginning of the study they found that a decrease in screen time tended to be met with an increase in sleep duration and vice versa, with the 3,734 children who were not overweight or obese 16 per cent more likely to become so throughout the report’s duration.
Every lost hour of sleep was associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of becoming overweight or obese, the annual European and International Congress on Obesity heard.
While the association between screen time and being overweight became less statistically relevant when external factors including sex, age, region of Europe and parental levels of education were taken into account, sleep duration remained a significant predictor of being overweight.
“Sleep is an often undervalued but important part of children’s development, with a regular lack of sleep causing a variety of health problems,” said lead author Dr Viveka Guzman from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
“Our findings suggest that sleep duration plays a role in the link between screen time and overweight, but more research is needed to understand the mechanism underlying this relationship.”
The report’s authors acknowledged that their research did not examine other factors such as levels of physical activity, family history of obesity or dietary patterns. Similarly, the study did not ask questions relating to children’s use of other devices such as smartphones.
There was also a chance that parents under-reported or misreported their child’s sleep duration or screen time, they conceded.
Many recent studies suggest parents and teachers should limit the amount of screen time, or time using and interacting with electronic devices that children are exposed to, to under two hours a day, something which is likely to be difficult to monitor as younger children become more confident using technology.
A recent study suggested that babies who spent greater amounts of time exposed to tablets and TV screens have a higher likelihood of developing greater autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like symptoms later in childhood.
A team of researchers examined the amount of time 2,152 children aged 12 and 18 months spent watching television or videos, alongside time spent playing socially and reading with parents or carers.
They found that viewing screens at 12 months old was associated with a four per cent greater likelihood of ASD-like symptoms aged two-years-old, while daily play time with a parent (compared to less than daily play) was associated with a nine per cent drop in likelihood of displaying ASD-like symptoms.