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Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Fang Kehong,
Mu Min,
Liu Kai,
He Yuna
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/cch.12701
Subject(s) - overweight , obesity , meta analysis , medicine , screen time , childhood obesity , systematic review , environmental health , pediatrics , medline , political science , law
Background Controlling childhood overweight/obesity would help early prevention on children from getting chronic noncommunicable diseases, exposing to screen for long periods may increase the risk of overweight/obesity due to lack of physical activity and tend to intake too much energy, and the relationship between screen time and overweight/obesity is inconsistent. Thus, the object of the present study was to estimate the relationship between screen time and overweight/obesity in children (<18 years) by systematically review prevalence studies. Methods We collected data from relevant studies published up to May 2019 using predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. And all the literatures were searched in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, and Web of Science. Results A total of 16 studies met the criteria and were included in the meta‐analysis. When compared with the screen time <2 hr/day, an increased overweight/obesity risk among children was shown in the screen time ≥2 hr/day (OR = 1.67; 95% CI [1.48, 1.88], P < .0001). The subgroup analysis showed a positive association between the different types of screen time and overweight/obesity among children. Conclusion Based on our study, increasing screen time could be a risk factor for being overweight/obesity in children and adolescents.