Effects of Prolonged Screen Time on Children Aged 1-5 Years – A Cross-sectional Study

<i>Introduction</i>: With the advancement of digital technology, people are enjoying the benefits of it in the context of information gathering, entertainment, saving physical time, and advertisement. Yet with good outcomes many undesirable side effects happen not only in adults but also in children. The prolonged use of screen time for children's physical, mental, and social health and development has now become a concern. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of prolonged screen time and its impact on children aged 1-5 years. <i>Methods</i>: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh from January, 2020 to July, 2020. This study included 150 children aged between 1 -5 years who used various screen devices daily. Children were divided into two groups – Group A (Children used screen time >2 hours/day) and Group B (Children used screen time <2 hours/day). <i>Result</i>: The mean age was 3.6 ±0.04 years and most of the children were male (60%). During meal time, 86% of children showed adverse effects like aggressiveness and stopped eating in group A, and 28 (37%) & 21 (28%) children demanded devices at sleep time in groups A & B respectively. Regarding nutritional effects, 26(35%) children of group A were overweight and 16(21%) were underweight. In group B, it is 28% and 20% respectively. <i>Conclusion</i>: The findings showed that using devices for more than 2 hours per day by children aged 1-5 years, was detrimental in regards to sleep disturbance, eating behavior, and nutritional condition.