ArticleEnvironmental health and preventive medicine2023
Cross-sectional associations between early mobile device usage and problematic behaviors among school-aged children in the Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children's Health.
Article in Environmental health and preventive medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations Between 24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Health-Related Quality of Life in East Asian Children.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Excessive screen time and problem behaviours among school-age children in Fujian, China: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Problematic usage of the internet among Hungarian elementary school children: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Association between excessive screen time and school-level proportion of no family rules among elementary school children in Japan: a multilevel analysis.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Parental norms and perceptions regarding use of mobile devices by children under five years.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConcerns have been raised about the adverse health impacts of mobile device usage. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between a child's age at the first use of a mobile device and the duration of use as well as associated behavioral problems among school-aged children.
methodsThis study focused on children aged 7-17 years participating in the Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children's Health. Between October 2020 and October 2021, the participants (n = 3,021) completed a mobile device use-related questionnaire and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). According to the SDQ score (normal or borderline/high), the outcome variable was behavioral problems. The independent variable was child's age at first use of a mobile device and the duration of use. Covariates included the child's age at the time of survey, sex, sleep problems, internet addiction, health-related quality of life, and history of developmental concerns assessed at health checkups. Logistic regression analysis was performed for all children; the analysis was stratified based on the elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels.
resultsAccording to the SDQ, children who were younger at their first use of a mobile device and used a mobile device for a longer duration represented more problematic behaviors. This association was more pronounced among elementary school children. Moreover, subscale SDQ analysis showed that hyperactivity, and peer and emotional problems among elementary school children, emotional problems among junior high school children, and conduct problems among senior high school children were related to early and long usage of mobile devices.
conclusionsElementary school children are more sensitive to mobile device usage than older children, and early use of mobile devices may exacerbate emotional instability and oppositional behaviors in teenagers. Longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to clarify whether these problems disappear with age.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.