ArticleBMC public health2021
Screen time and early childhood development in Ceará, Brazil: a population-based study.
Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- [Prolonged television exposure in children and adolescents: health effects and protection strategies].Revista espanola de salud publica · 2024Pooled it
- Age-Specific Normative Values for the Sitting-Rising Test in Brazilian Children and Adolescents.Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Article
- Associations between maternal and child anemia and development outcomes: evidence from a large cross-sectional population-based study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Screen Time and Social Development Through Play in Early Childhood: A Cross-Sectional Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Validity and reliability of Indonesian version of the digital screen exposure questionnaire (DSEQ) for young children.PloS one · 2026Article
- Effect of Screen Time on Language Development Among Toddlers and Preschool Children in Al Qatif, Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2026Article
- Impact of screen use on behavior and sleep in patients with autism spectrum disorder.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2025Review
- Perinatal and Childhood Risk Factors of Adverse Early Childhood Developmental Outcomes: A Systematic Review Using a Socioecological Model.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Assessing the Impact of Screen Time on the Motor Development of Children: A Systematic Review.Pediatric discovery · 2025Review
- Screen Exposure and Early Childhood Development in Resource-Limited Regions: Findings From a Population-Based Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Compliance With the 24-h Movement Behaviours Guidelines Among Brazilian Toddlers.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Screen use in children - two sides of the coin: a critical narrative review.Dementia & neuropsychologia · 2025Review
- Patterns of Screen Time From Ages 2 to 6-7 Years in South Brazil: A Prospective Study.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Screen Exposure in 4-Year-Old Children: Association with Development, Daily Habits, and Ultra-Processed Food Consumption.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Influence of maternal and infant technology use and other family factors on infant development.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- The impact of parental migration on screen exposure among children aged 1-66 months in rural China.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Measuring effects of screen time on the development of children in the Philippines: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGlobally, children's exposure to digital screens continues to increase and is associated with adverse effects on child health. We aimed to evaluate the association of screen exposure with child communication, gross-motor, fine-motor, problem-solving, and personal-social development scores.
methodsWe conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study with cluster sampling among children 0-60 months of age living in the state of Ceará, Brazil. Child screen time was assessed by maternal report and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations were used to define excessive screen time exposure. Child development was assessed with the Brazilian Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Generalized linear regression was used to determine the association of screen exposure with developmental outcomes. We also examined the potential non-linear relationship of screen time with development scores using spline analyses.
resultsA total of 3155 children 0-60 months of age had screen time exposure evaluated and 69% percent were identified as exposed to excessive screen time. This percentage of excess screen time increased with child age from 41.7% for children 0-12 months to 85.2% for children 49-60 months. Each additional hour of screen time was associated with lower child communication (standardized mean difference (SMD): -0.03; 95% CI: - 0.04, - 0.02), problem solving (SMD: -0.03; 95% CI: - 0.05, - 0.02) and personal-social (SMD: -0.04; 95% CI: - 0.06, - 0.03) domain scores.
conclusionsExcess screen time exposure was highly prevalent and independently associated with poorer development outcomes among children under 5 years of age in Ceará, Brazil.
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