Abstract:

The worldwide increasing prevalence of overweight and obese preschoolers in recent decades, represents a challenging public health issue. As in other countries, in Portugal more than 30% of childhood population has overweight. Accordingly, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted life for all, with the closure of non-essential businesses and schools. For preschool children, this limited opportunities for movement and social life, disrupted daily schedules and routines. The present study aims to understand and compare the screen time and sleep time of preschool children, conducted at 6 kindergartens, selected for convenience, in two different regions from Portugal (Bragança and Gondomar) before and during the lockdown. The parents and guardians of all children that participated in the present study signed an informed consent, and the study was approved by the local education authorities, and the General Directorate of Education - Ministry of Education. 230 healthy children (103 girls; 127 boys) participated in this study, 176 of them (76.5%) were from Bragança (mean age of 4.5±0.7 years) and 54 (23.5%) were from Gondomar (mean age of 4.3±1.0 years). For data collection, two phases were considered: the first one, before SARS-COV-2 pandemic, the children’s parents were interviewed using a questionnaire to evaluate the time spent watching television and playing video games, both during the week and weekend, as well as the number of hours of sleep. During the COVID-19 pandemic, were used the same questionnaire in an online form. Preschool children from Gondomar slept significantly less hours on average (9.5±0.8) than those in Bragança (10.2±1.5; p<0.05). Considering the time spent in front of the television (TV), preschool children spent at least 1.5±0.8 hours/day during the week in Bragança, as well as in Gondomar (1.5±0.8). During the weekend, preschool children watched, on average, 2.4±1.3 hours/day of TV in Bragança, and 2.7±1.8 hours/day in Gondomar. Regarding the time spent playing video games, the children from both regions spent more hours on the weekend (Bragança: 0.9±0.9; Gondomar: 0.9±0.8) than on the week (Bragança: 0.5±0.6; Gondomar: 0.7±0.9), but without statistically significant differences. On the other hand, the Pearson’s correlation shows that the preschool children spending more time watching TV during the week, slept less time (-0.516; p<0.05). In this sense, it seems that these sedentary activities are compromising the sleeping time. Screen time activities at night, in fact, are able to delay sleep onset and interfere with sleep duration, quality and efficiency. It is expected that during COVID-19 lockdown, children will spend more time at screen activities, namely watching TV and using their computer to assist school classes, which could affect sleeping time. Given the importance of quality and sleeping time in children's health, and despite the importance of the acquisition of technology skills, it is extremely important to control and measure the time spent by children on screen activities so as not to compromise their health.

Keywords:

Preschool children, Sleep Time, Screen Activities.