Digital technology use and adolescent body weight: Evidence from the SCAMP cohort study

Abstract

Background/Aim: Use of digital technologies such as mobile phones is ubiquitous in adolescents. We aimed to assess the social predictors of digital technology use and its association with body weight in a large cohort of adolescents.Methods: We used baseline data from a subset of a large adolescent cohort of 39 schools across Greater London who participated in the Study of Cognition Adolescents and Mobile Phone (SCAMP) (n=1,474). Digital technology use included phone call, internet use on mobile phone, and video gaming on any device. Multi-level regression was used to assess the association between digital technology use and age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) z-score and overweight (including obesity) derived from objectively measured height and weight. We examined whether the associations were mediated by insufficient sleep.Results: Generally, participants with lower socioeconomic status reported more use of digital technologies. Internet use on mobile phone for more than 3 hours per day was associated with higher BMI z-score and greater odds of being overweight, compared to low use (≤30 min). Similar association between video gaming and body weight was found. Weekday insufficient sleep partly mediated the associations between internet use and video gaming and BMI z-score by an indirect effect.Conclusions: We found an association between digital technologies and body weight, partly mediated by insufficient sleep, suggesting underlying mechanisms may be multi-factorial. Further research with longitudinal data is essential to explore the direction of relationships.