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Interesting Study -Detrimental Dose-Response of Screen Time

November 30, 2018 7:04 am

In 1995, there was a Batman movie, “Batman Forever,” in which one of the central villains, the Riddler, places these brainwave devices over the TVs to gain control of Gotham. The sad part, according to a recent study (J Zhao et al. J Pediatr 2018; 202; 157-62) is there is no need to add a brainwave device to a TV set. Excessive screen time alone is quite detrimental.

In this cross-sectional survey in Shanghai with more than 20,000 children, the authors found the following:

Mean screen time for preschool children was 2.8 hrs per day. 78.6% exceeded 1 hour per day and 53% exceeded 2 hrs per day.
Every additional hour of screen time was associated with increased risk for poor psychosocial well-being; this effect on well-being had a number of mediators including reducing parent-child interaction as well as increased body mass index and reduced sleep duration.

My take: This study reinforces the consequences of excessive screen time –now, the hard part — how to translate these findings into reduction in screen time.

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