Association of screen time and cardiometabolic risk in school-aged children

Leigh M Vanderloo; Charles D G Keown-Stoneman; Harunya Sivanesan; Patricia C Parkin; Jonathon L Maguire; Laura N Anderson; Mark S Tremblay; Catherine S Birken; TARGet Kids! Collaborative

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101183

Association of screen time and cardiometabolic risk in school-aged children

Prev Med Rep. 2020 Aug 21:20:101183. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2020.101183. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Leigh M Vanderloo¹, Charles D G Keown-Stoneman^{2

3}, Harunya Sivanesan^{4

1}, Patricia C Parkin^{1

5

6

7}, Jonathon L Maguire^{2

6

7

8}, Laura N Anderson^{1

9}, Mark S Tremblay¹⁰, Catherine S Birken^{1

4}; TARGet Kids! Collaborative

Affiliations

¹ The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² The Applied Health Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Division of Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ School of Dalla Lana Public Health, Epidemiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Division of Pediatric Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1XB, Canada.
⁶ Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
¹⁰ Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research, CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada.

Abstract

Screen use has become a pervasive behaviour among children and has been linked to adverse health outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine the association between screen time and a comprehensive total cardiometabolic risk (CMR) score in school-aged children (7-12-years), as well as individual CMR factors. In this longitudinal study, screen time was measured over time (average duration of follow-up was 17.4 months) via parent-report. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, and biospecimens were collected over time and used to calculate CMR score [sum of age and sex standardized z-scores of systolic blood pressure (SBP), glucose, log-triglycerides, waist circumference (WC), and negative high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c)/square-root of 5]. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to examine the association between screen time and total CMR score as well as individual CMR factors. A total of 567 children with repeated measures were included. There was no evidence of an association between parent-reported child screen time and total CMR score (adjusted β = -0.01, 95% CI [-0.03, 0.005], 0.16). Screen time was inversely associated HDL-c (adjusted β = -0.008, 95% CI [-0.011, -0.005], p = 0.016), but there was no evidence that the other CMR components were associated with screen time. Among children 7-12 years, there was no evidence of an association between parent-reported child screen time and total CMR, but increased screen time was associated with slightly lower HDL-c. Research is needed to understand screen-related contextual factors which may be related to CMR factors.

Keywords: Cholesterol; Computer; Glucose; Systolic blood pressure; TV; Triglycerides; Waist circumference.