Relationship Between Screen Time and Body Mass Index in Young Adults

Abstract Background: This study aimed to find the association between screen time (ST) and body mass index in young adults.Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted on 1876 students (aged 18-22yrs) from multiple Colleges of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, from January 2021 till June 2021. The main tools of the study were: 1) Body mass index (BMI) and an online questionnaire. The subjects were categorized into 3 main groups based on their ST: 1) Low ST< 2Hours/day, 2) Medium ST= 3 to 5Hours/day, 3) Excessive ST > 6Hours /day. Based on BMI, subjects were categorized into three main groups: Normal and underweight (BMI ≤24.9), over weight (BMI >25-29.9) and obese (BMI > 30).Results: The mean age (±SD) of participants was 20 ± 2.8 years. Average BMI was 23.5 kg/m2 . The % of students falling into the categories of normal weight, overweight and obesity was 69.2, 19.05 and 11.7% respectively . Average screen time in study participants was 8.2 ± 3.45 hrs /24 hours. 71.15% participants indicated a ST of ≥ 6 hrs/24 hours and 23.71% reported ST of 3 - 5 hrs/24 hours. Only 3.15 % of students reported ST of ≤ 2 hrs/24 hours. Although a rise in the mean BMI was observed with an increase in the ST, but this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.156). Pair wise comparison also failed to demonstrate any difference in BMI between different categorize of ST. Furthermore no significant positive correlation was found between increased BMI and excessive ST (P=0.37).Conclusion: A high percentage of young adults (31.2%) were overweight or obese, but excessive ST was not significantly associated with increased BMI in this study population. Further studies are recommended to identify the effects of other factors in causing increased BMI in young adults.