Association between screen time and dietary behaviors among urban middle school students in Guangzhou / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand the relationship between screen time and dietary behaviors among urban middle school students in Guangzhou, and to provide scientific evidence for improving students’ health.@*Methods@#Based on the regular medical examinations for elementary and middle school students in Guangzhou, a total of 12 357 middle school students (grade 7 and grade 10) were investigated by using a cross-sectional study. The physical indicators and daily routine were collected by physical examination and questionnaire survey. Multiple Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between screen time and dietary behaviors among students.@*Results@#The proportion of excessive screen time was 18.80% (2 323). There was no significant difference between boys (18.52%, 1 165/6 292) and girls (19.09%, 1 158/6 065) (χ2=0.67, P>0.05). Logistic regression results showed that excessive screen time was negatively associated with consumption of vegetables and fruits, with the aORs of 0.50 (95%CI=0.42-0.58) and 0.64 (95%CI=0.58-0.70) respectively, and positively associated with consumption of fried food (OR=1.90, 95%CI=1.70-2.09), western fast food (OR=1.90, 95%CI=1.65-2.19), sweets (OR=1.36, 95%CI=1.25-1.49) and sugar-sweetened beverage (OR=1.70, 95%CI=1.57-1.84).@*Conclusion@#Excessive screen time was associated with unhealthy dietary behaviors among middle school students in Guangzhou. Intervention should be tailored to screen time as well as dietary behaviors.