What is the relationship between screen media and physical activity (PA) in children and adolescents? Abigail López

How much time do children and adolescents spend on screen media? Children and adolescents spend up to 7 hours of their daily lives on screen media exposure. Strasburger, Jordan, & Donnerstein, 2010

Why is it important for children and adolescents to engage in physical activity? social skills enhancement of psychological status physical sensation sport performance concentration memory skills better classroom performance O'Dea, 2003 and Strong et al., 2005

What will happen if children and adolescents don’t engage in physical activity? activities at home don’t socialize with other children create more fatty tissue (adiposity) diabetes stroke heart disease asthma overweight obese O’Dea, 2003

What will happen if children and adolescents don’t engage in physical activity? Metabolic Syndrome ◦ blood pressure ◦ blood sugar levels ◦ fat around the waist ◦ high triglyceride levels ◦ good cholesterol, or HDL Strong et al., 2005

Television and Computer exposure Effect on Physical Activity Carlson et al., 2010 and Melkevik,Torsheim, Iannotti, & Wold, 2010 and Sisson et al., 2005

Methods Cross-Sectional ◦ Positive association between screen media usage and PA Longitudinal ◦ No relationship between screen media usage and PA

Video Games Affecting Physical Activity Boys spent more time playing video games than girls Association ◦ ↑ time spent on video games & ↓ PA Melkevik,Torsheim, Iannotti, & Wold, 2010 and Taveras et al., 2007

Conclusion Children spend a lot of time using screen media One urban area & international samples ◦ ↑ screen media ◦ ↓PA Cross-sectional: ◦ ↑ screen media ◦ ↓PA Longitudinal: No relationship