Screen time increases risk of overweight and obesity in active and inactive 9 year old irish children: a cross sectional analysis.

BACKGROUND: Independent associations between screen time (ST)/physical activity (PA) and overweight (OW)/obesity have been demonstrated but little research exists on the role of ST among sufficiently active children.

PURPOSE: To examine the combined influence of ST and PA on risk of OW/obesity in a nationally representative sample of 9-year old Irish children.

METHODS: The sample in this cross sectional analysis contained 8568 children. Self-report parent data were used to group children into ST and PA categories and related to OW/obesity using forced entry logistic regression.

RESULTS: High ST (>3 hours/day), bedroom TV and mobile phone ownership increased risk of OW/obesity in high and low active children (p<0.05). Low PA (<9 bouts fortnightly) was also associated with OW/obesity. In combined analyses, OW/obesity was lowest in the reference low ST/high PA group with ORs of 1.38, 1.63 and 2.07 respectively in the low ST/low PA, high ST/high PA and high ST/low PA groups. Access to electronic media, low socio-economic status, parental obesity and not engaging in sports were all related to high ST (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: This study supports findings that ST is associated with OW/Obesity demonstrating this separately in high and low active children.