Study finds Bangladesh teens with extended screen time show 'psychological symptoms'

A new study has found psychosocial difficulties such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit and peer relationship difficulties among the teens in Bangladesh who indulge more in screen-based activities and stay away from physical activities.

Researchers say this finding has significant public health implications for developing countries such as Bangladesh, which are now demonstrating increasing rates of recreational screen use and inactivity as access to technology becomes easier.

The research published in the International Health, an official journal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Oxford University Press, is said to be the first such study that examined the “combined effects of physical activity and screen time on the psychosocial difficulties of adolescents in Bangladesh”.

Some 671 students aged between 13 years and 16 years of eight schools in Bangladesh, both English and Bangla mediums, have responded to the study.

Earlier, a research by the same author Prof Asad Khan of University of Queensland’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Science found that teenagers in Bangladesh who did less than one hour of moderate exercise, and had more than two hours of screen time per day, were twice as likely to report depressive symptoms than those who exercised for an hour a day.

Prof Khan told bdnews24.com the earlier study was on examining depressive symptoms only while the current study examined psychosocial difficulties, which included "behavioural and emotional problems, anxiety disorder, conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder", which are very common among children and adolescents.

“The current study offered a comprehensive measure of mental health, assessed through measuring depression and anxiety symptoms or disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity and conduct disorders, and peer relationship difficulties,” he said.

“Therefore, the current study presented a robust assessment of the mental health of our children and adolescents. The evidence is mounting for the benefits of regular exercise and regulated screen time in the mental health of children and adolescents.”

“We are perhaps busy with the managing of physical health while psychosocial health has received a little or no attention in our country,” Prof Khan said.

“In the current study, we’ve demonstrated the role of physical activity and regulated screen time on prevention of psychosocial difficulties among children and adolescents in our country.”

Adolescents’ psychosocial difficulties were assessed using the parent-reported strengths and difficulties questionnaire which is a widely used “reliable and valid” inventory to screen those conditions in the world. The method was validated in Bangladesh before the research.

The analysis showed that adolescents with insufficient physical activity and high screen time had a significantly higher level of psychosocial difficulties than their counterparts who had sufficient physical activity and low screen time.

Screen-based activity means watching television, playing video games, using a computer or other electronic devices such as tablets, smartphones.

Given that one in four participating adolescents reported both insufficient physical activity and high recreational screen time, and resources for mental health diagnosis, support and treatment are scarce in Bangladesh, the findings of the present study are “concerning”, the authors commented.

Prof Khan said strategies are needed that focus on reducing adolescents sedentary time and promoting sufficient physical activity to reduce the likelihood of psychosocial difficulties.

He, however, suggested further research to understand the issue and take major policy decisions.

Prof Khan and his team are also working on developing a culturally appropriate intervention to help Bangladeshi adolescents reduce prolonged sedentariness and increase physical activity.

“We are not identifying problems only,” he said, adding that he had dispatched three PhD students to try to see what kind of intervention works.

As a chair of the Active Healthy Kids Bangladesh, an affiliate of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Prof Khan last year launched a campaign to try to influence government policies and strategies to promote physical activity among children involving all relevant stakeholders.

Globally, the Alliance uses a ‘Report Card’ as the vehicle to achieve its goals.

In Bangladesh, they are also working on preparing a country “Report Card” for Bangladesh to consolidate existing evidence of physical activity behaviours among the children and youths.

Low physical activity is known as one of the leading risk factors for the non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and cancer in Bangladesh.