Feasibility of wearable cameras to assess screen time and time spent restrained in children aged 3 to 5 years: a study protocol

Non-Invasive Screen Exposure Time Assessment Using Wearable Sensor and Object Detection

Cumulative screen exposure has been increased due to the explosion of digital technology ownership in the past decade for all people, including children who face exposure related risks such as obesity, eye problems, and disrupted sleep. Screen exposure is linked to physical and mental health risks among both children and adults. Current methods of screen exposure assessment have their limitations, mostly in the prospective of objectiveness, robustness, and invasiveness. In this paper, we propose a novel method to measure screen exposure time using a wearable sensor and computer vision technology. We use a customized, lightweight, wearable senor to capture egocentric images and use deep learning-based object detection module to identify the existence of electronic screens. The duration of screen exposure is further estimated using post-processing technology to filter consecutive frames regarding to the screen usage. Our method is non-invasive and robust, providing an objective and accurate means to screen exposure measurement. We conduct experiments on various environments to identify the existence of three types of screens and duration of screen exposure. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of automatically assessing screen time exposure and great potential to be applied in large scale experiments for behavioral study.

Associations between meeting 24-hour movement guidelines and health in the early years: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review examined the compliance with the 24-h movement guidelines, and investigated its associations with health indicators for healthy children under 5 years of age. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science and SPORTDiscus were searched for peer-reviewed studies and the last search was conducted on 27 October 2020. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scales were used to assess the quality of included studies. Eighteen articles including 8,943 participants from 11 countries were included. On average around 13% of the children met all three guidelines. Meta-analyses of the associations between meeting all three guidelines and adiposity yielded no significant results (r = - 0.03; 95% CI = - 0.12, 0.06; I² = 51%; P = 0.48). Meeting more guidelines was associated with better psychosocial health (3/4 studies). Associations between meeting individual or combined guidelines and motor development yielded mixed results (2/2 studies), while no associations between meeting guidelines and cognitive development were observed (1 study). Compliance with all three guidelines was low. Further evidence is required to understand the associations between meeting the 24-h movement guidelines and health outcomes. Nevertheless, there was evidence of a dose-response relationship between meeting the guidelines and better psychosocial health in the early years.