Too much screen time has been linked to obesity, sleep deprivation, problems at school, and elevated blood pressure and cholesterol.
Spending too much time in front of the television and computer is causing more than mere lethargy in today's adolescents; it is impacting their health. In the July issue of the NCHS Data Brief, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released findings that based on two national surveys of children between the ages of 12 and 15 years, approximately 98.5 percent of youth in this age group watch television daily and nearly 75 percent spend at least two hours daily in front of the TV screen and computer.
Current and past researchers have linked this sort of behavior to obesity, sleep deprivation, problems at school, and elevated blood pressure and cholesterol. Moreover, in a January 2014 study conducted by a team Anders Grøntved et al, affiliated with the University of Southern Denmark, excessive television viewing (more than two hours per day) was linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease during adulthood. The effects were more marked in adolescents who increased their overall screen time to more than two hours per day. According to Grøntved et al, the heightened cardiovascular risk was related to ' adiposity, triglycerides and metabolic syndrome.'
According to the CDC, groups such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-supported Expert Panel and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are taking action against such risk factors by suggesting that adolescents spend less than two hours of daily leisure time in front of television and computer screens.
Some health professionals are reacting by suggesting a healthy balance between screen-time leisure and other activities. Dr. Marjorie Hogan, a Hennepin County Medical Center pediatrician in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who assisted in writing the AAP guidelines, recommends a ' healthy media diet,' such as one that involves some time devoted to socializing on the screen and a larger amount of time focused towards socializing with people. Dr. Angela Diaz, director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center in New York City, also impresses the importance of urging adults to ' create an environment where kids have choices other than TV and computers.'
