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Meta-Analysis
. 2019 Sep;45(5):744-753.
doi: 10.1111/cch.12701. Epub 2019 Jul 24.

Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Kehong Fang  1 , Min Mu  2 , Kai Liu  3 , Yuna He  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Kehong Fang et al. Child Care Health Dev. 2019 Sep.

Erratum in

Abstract

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.

Keywords: a meta-analysis; children; obesity; overweight; screen time.

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References

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