Screen time and sweet consumption in preschool children: a cross-sectional study.
Soraya Alves Marreiro, Isabela Araújo Linhares Castro, Samir Gabriel Vasconcelos Azevedo and 5 others
PMID 42561253WHAT IT FOUND
Preschool children's median weekday television and smartphone screen time was 60 minutes, and more than 50% exceeded two hours on weekends.
Screen limits were not associated with less screen time, but sweet limits were associated with less excessive smartphone use.
Key findings
01Median daily television and smartphone screen time was 60 minutes on weekdays, and more than 50% of children exceeded two hours per day on weekends.
02Excessive smartphone use (>two hours/day) was significantly more frequent in children aged 3 to 4 years (OR=2.26; 95%CI: 1.09-4.67; p=0.02), among mixed race/color children (p<0.01), and among children not enrolled in full-time schooling (p<0.01).
03More than half of children (59.8%) ate meals in front of screens, especially ages 1 to 2 years (63.9%), and limits on sweet consumption were associated with lower excessive smartphone use (OR=0.32; 95%CI: 0.12-0.85; p=0.023).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether screen time influenced sweet consumption or sweet consumption influenced screen time. It included 175 guardians from six public early childhood education centres in one city, so results may not apply to other populations. Screen time and eating behaviours were reported by guardians, which may introduce recall or social desirability bias. The study did not assess what content children watched or the context of screen use. The sample size was derived from a larger longitudinal study rather than this cross-sectional aim.
Declared interests
Brazilian research agencies funded grants to named authors; no commercial sponsor or additional conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that screen-time limits caused less screen use or that sweet limits caused less smartphone use. The study was cross-sectional, screen-time limits were not significantly associated with less screen time, and the sweet-limit association was significant only for smartphone use.