Diabetes Diagnosis and Screen-Based Sedentary Behavior Among US Adults

The association between screen time and depression symptoms severity among adults with diabetes: A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between time spent on screen-based sedentary behavior (SBSB) and depression symptom severity (DSS) among adults with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study employing secondary data collected by Qatar Biobank (QBB) on 2386 adults with type 2 diabetes aged ≥ 18 years. Self-reported data on DSS measured using the Patient Health Quationnaire-9 and daily time spent on SBSB per week was used.

RESULTS

After adjusting for covariates, including physical activity and sleep duration, subjects who spent 2-4 h or > 4 h a day on SBSB watching TV or other devices other than computers during weekdays had increased odds of higher DSS than subjects who spent < 1 h by 44% (95% Confidence interval (CI) 13-83%) and 52% (95% CI 17-96%), respectively. Subjects who spent > 4 h a day on SBSB using computers during weekdays had increased odds of higher DSS by 115% (95% CI 56-196%) than subjects who spent < 1 h. Similar associations were observed between time spent on SBSB using the mentioned devices during weekends and DSS.

CONCLUSION

Increase in time spent on SBSB is independently associated with increased DSS among adults with type 2 diabetes regardless of the equipment used or timing of the week.

Effect of screen time intervention on obesity among children and adolescent: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies

Several studies have investigated the effect of screen time interventions on obesity in children and adolescents, but the existing results were controversial. This study aimed to analyze the effect of screen time intervention on obesity in children and adolescents. PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Embase databases were searched through December 2020 to identify publications meeting a priori inclusion criteria and references in the published articles were also reviewed. Finally, 14 randomized controlled trials and 1894 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that interventions targeting screen time are effective in reducing total screen time (MD: -6.90 h/week, 95% CI: [-9.19 to -4.60], p < 0.001) and television time (MD: -6.17 h/week, 95% CI: [-10.70 to -1.65], p < 0.001) in children and adolescents. However, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in body mass index and body mass index-z score. In conclusion, there is no evidence that screen time interventions alone can decrease obesity risk in children and adolescents, though they can effectively reduce screen time.

The associations between screen time-based sedentary behavior and depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

The use of computers/TV has become increasingly common worldwide after entering the twenty-first century and depression represents a growing public health burden. Understanding the association between screen time-based sedentary behavior (ST-SB) and the risk of depression is important to the development of prevention and intervention strategies.

Methods

We searched the electronic databases of Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library. The odds ratio (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was adopted as the pooled measurement. Subgroup analyses were investigated by stratified meta-analyses based on age, gender and reference group (reference category of screen time, e.g. 2 h/day, 4 h/day).

Results

There were 12 cross-sectional studies and 7 longitudinal studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, the pooled OR was 1.28 with high heterogeneity (I² = 89%). Compared to those who reported less SB, persons reporting more SB had a significantly higher risk of depression. When the gender was stratified, the pooled OR was 1.18 in female groups while no significant association was observed in males. Among the 19 studies, 5 studies used a reference group with ST = 2 h/days (pooled OR = 1.46), 9 studies used ≥4 h as a reference group (pooled OR = 1.38), 2 studies used 1 h as a reference group (pooled OR = 1.07) and for the remaining 3 studies, hours of ST were calculated as a continuous variable (pooled OR = 1.04).

Conclusions

ST-SB is associated with depression risk and the effects vary in different populations. In addition, valid objective measures of SB should be developed in future studies.