Paper
Association between Childhood Computer Use and Risk of Obesity and Low Vision
- Authors:
- Ihab Tewfik; Awab I. Ali; Abdulbari Bener; Huda S. Al-Mahdi; Mohammed Al-Nufal; Pankit J Vachhani
- Abstract
- The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the relationship between excessive Internet/ Video games/ Television viewing and childhood obesity and low vision in the State of Qatar. A total of 3000 school students aged from 6 to 18 years were approached and 2467 (82.2%) students participated in this study. Of the 2,467 studied school children, 591 (24.0%) were either overweight (18.8%) or obese (5.1%). Majority of the overweight (80.2%) and obese (80.3%) children spent ≥ 3 hours on the Internet (p < 0.001). A larger proportion of overweight (77.2%) and obese (70.1) children, when compared to normal weight (58.5%) children, slept ≤ 6 hours/night (p < 0.001). A significantly larger proportion of overweight and obese children, compared to normal weight children, prefer watching commercials, fantasy violence, violent movies and educational programs on TV (p < 0.001). Symptoms of excessive internet use and TV viewing ( ≥ 3 hours/day) manifested as headaches (36.5%), blurred vision (35.6%), double vision (9.8%), eye tiredness (15.7%), dizziness (24.4%) and hearing problems (25.0%). A significant number of those who spent ≥ 3 hours on the Internet had low vision in both right (14.9%) and left (14.0%) eyes (p < 0.001). The current study findings confirmed a positive association between obesity and low vision because of excessive use of Internet, Video games and TV viewing.
- Keywords
- Excessive Internet Use; TV Viewing; Obesity; Low Vision; Children
- StartPage
- 66
- EndPage
- 72
- Doi
- 10.5963/PHF0103002