Teens spending too much time on cell phones and other electronic devices may be a health risk.
A new study suggests it may put them at risk for cardiometabolic disease.
Dr. Carl Horton, a cardiologist with Texas Health Cleburne and Texas Health Physicians Group, explains cardiometabolic disease to KERA's Sam Baker and how the study ties the disease to phone use.
Dr. Horton: Basically, cardiometabolic disease refers to a compilation of risk factors that increase your risk for developing cardiovascular disease in the future, as well as type 2 diabetes.
Some of the main risk factors include:
- high blood pressure
- high cholesterol
- obesity
Baker: How would this tie to excessive use of cell phones in electronic devices?
It was an association between screen time and the amount of sleep in children and adolescents.
The study looked at their total screen time, whether it was with a cell phone, playing video games, watching TV, or in front of a computer. And they looked at that screen time and the amount of sleep.
And then they did measurements of the children to come up with a score of what they thought their risk of developing cardiovascular disease would be in the future.
Is this about the amount of time they spend on screens, period, or maybe them spending too much time at night on screens?
Probably refers to a little bit of both, because we know that if you're in front of a screen for several hours per day, you're usually less physically active at that time.
As for the timing of the screen time, the study commented that people who are on their screens late at night may have trouble with the total duration of sleep at night.
It's known that blue light from screens can perhaps affect the amount of melatonin that's produced, and melatonin helps regulate your circadian rhythm as well as the amount of your sleep-wake cycle.
And so it's thought that being on screen is too late is bad overall for your sleep regulation and then subsequent cardiovascular health.
And all of this puts you at higher risk for cardiometabolic disease?
That's correct, in the future. And we've already seen that children, adolescents, and the rates of type 2 diabetes have been increasing in that population.
There are a lot of things related to that. Some, of course, is related to diet and processed foods, but a lot is also related to physical inactivity.
I understand you see this in your own home?
Of course. Anybody who's raising children now knows it's a struggle to try to keep them off their devices and also to get them to be more active.
And so as a parent, you also want to encourage your children to put those phones down early, set parameters, and then also make sure that your children are staying physically active by doing some type of sports or other activity.
I treat mostly adults, but I do usually ask how much physical activity they're doing per week. I will also ask a lot of patients about the amount of sleep they get per night.
And so, I think for pediatricians out there and those that treat adolescents, they’ve got to hone in on those questions a lot earlier.
It isn't just a problem, though, for teens.
It is across the board. Also, this study kind of looked at two previous cohorts. It was based out of Denmark, but I think what would be more interesting if they could put it together would be kind of a long-term randomized trial looking at this from a small community, kind of like the Framingham study, but follow kids through adolescence and young adulthood over, let's say, 30 to 40 years and get a more accurate assessment of the potential risk of exposed screen time as well as sleep duration.
Of course, I guess if you use the cell phone the right way, you could use that to enhance your health.
And we've seen that some also with smart devices, such as the Apple Watch, where patients can really track their health, track their number of steps that they're taking, and Fitbit devices.
So, technology can be used for good, but it just has to be used for good and not just strictly other things.
RESOURCES:
Kids and teens who sleep less and use screens more may face higher heart risks: Study
