Child hooked to mobile screen? Digital detox may offer solution

CHANDIGARH: Worried about your plumpy school-going child hooked to a mobile screen, their habit of binge eating and its nutritional and psychological effects on child’s health? A joint effort of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Palampur-based CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (CSK HPKV) may offer some solutions in near future.

Interestingly, it will not be a one-stop solution of sorts but a customised one, wherein different intervention strategies (digital detox) will be offered to each such child based on the time they spend on screen and the type of content they watch.

Apart from nutritional and lifestyle counselling, the solution will also have on its menu recipes of several healthy foods and their demonstrations. Recognising that apart from other known ill-effects, overuse of mobile handsets, laptops and tablets by children also leads to adverse effect on the eating habits and psychological distress, both the institutes will generate relevant database based on the responses of 1,800 such school-going children from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Based on database, digital detox models will be developed.

Total 1,000 children from Punjab – from all three regions of Majha, Malwa and Doaba – and 800 from Himachal Pradesh will be part of the study, which is funded by the Indian Council for Science and Social Research (ICSSR). During the one-year long project, both the universities will investigate the relationship between screen viewing and nutritional and psychological distress among school children (13-15 years). ICSSR has sanctioned Rs 17 lakh for the project.

“The increase in screen viewing also leads to binge eating and consumption of more processed foods which affect the nutritional status of the child,” said Sonika Sharma, professor, food and nutrition, and principal investigator (PI) of the project.

“Also, increased screen time limits the physical activity of the child. The duration and purpose of screen usage also needs to be explored as it might affect physiological aspects of the child. Our study will explore the usage of screens and find out its association with nutritional status, body composition indices and selected psychological distress among school children,” she said.

She further added that based on the results derived from the study, the Digital Detox Model would be planned to sensitise school children regarding limiting screen viewing and adopting healthy dietary modification and lifestyle.

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