A cross-sectional study to explore the excessive screen usage and its impact among children visiting the OPD of a government tertiary care hospital of Uttarakhand

• Author Details:   
• Ayesha Imran
• Tanvi Singh ^*
• Aastha Bhandari Rawat
• Shiv Kumar Yadav

Background: In the modern extant children’s proclivity towards lucrative screens is on the rise. Screen viewing can displace a variety of missed opportunities to practice developmental milestones such as language and motor skills. Personalized family media planning is needed.

Objective: Determine the impact of excessive screen time among children visiting the government tertiary care hospital of Uttarakhand.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study conducted for a 9-month duration. 491 healthy children (aged 1to18 years) visiting the pediatric Department OPD were enrolled as study participants.

Results: In the study population, the majority were underweight. The majority of children view television and mobile devices for 30 minutes to 2 hours per day. Positive correlation of increased BMI was found with duration of television and mobile exposure. The earliest age of screen usage was 2-3 years. Circumstances in which children used screens were before sleeping and while eating, whereas most adolescents use them for recreation. After stopping the screen device, the commonest response was irritability. By overuse of the screen, the most common physical change was loss of appetite and weight loss. In social changes, changes in sleep patterns and attention span were observed. In behavioral changes most common was anger.

Conclusion: To promote child health and development in the digital era, there should be a family screen plan for when, how, and where screens should be used. There should be a daily screen-free time and a limitation of routine or regular screen time to less than 1 hour per day.