Abstract
BackgroundThe prevalence of overweight among Swedish young adults has nearly doubled since the 1980s. The weight increase has been paralleled by the increased use of computers at work, at school, and at leisure time. The aim was to examine leisure time computer use for gaming, and for emailing/chatting, in relation to overweight development in young adults.MethodsA prospective cohort study with Swedish young adults (20–24 years at baseline) who responded to a questionnaire at baseline (n = 6735), and after 1 year (n = 3928) and 5 years (n = 2593). Exposure variables were average daily time spent on leisure time computer gaming and emailing/chatting. Logistic regression was performed for cross-sectional analyses with overweight (BMI ≥ 25) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30) as the outcomes, and for prospective analyses with new cases of overweight at the 1- and 5-year follow-ups. Change in BMI from baseline to 5 year-follow-up was analyzed with linear regression.ResultsThere were cross-sectional and prospective associations between computer gaming and overweight (BMI ≥ 25) in women, after adjusting for age, occupation, physical activity, sleep, social support, and total computer use. For the men, only cross-sectional associations could be seen. Spending more than 2 h daily for emailing and chatting was related cross-sectionally to overweight in the women. No clear prospective associations were found for emailing/chatting and overweight development in either sex.ConclusionsWe have identified a new risk group for overweight development: young adult female computer gamers. Leisure time computer gaming was a prospective risk factor for overweight in women even after adjusting for demographic and lifestyle factors, but not in men. There were no clear prospective associations between computer use for emailing/chatting and overweight in either sex.
Highlights
The prevalence of overweight among Swedish young adults has nearly doubled since the 1980s
Among the cross-sectional studies, Arora et al [14] found associations between computer use at bedtime and Body mass index (BMI) in adolescents, while Kautiainen et al [12] found associations between time spent on the computer for emailing, writing and surfing the internet and overweight in girls, but not for time spent on digital games
About half of the males and 40 % of the females reported that they exercised on a regular basis, while 17 % of the males and 13 % of the females reported being mainly physically inactive at leisure time
Summary
The prevalence of overweight among Swedish young adults has nearly doubled since the 1980s. The weight increase has been paralleled by the increased use of computers at work, at school, and at leisure time. The aim was to examine leisure time computer use for gaming, and for emailing/chatting, in relation to overweight development in young adults. The prevalence of overweight among Swedish young adults has nearly doubled since the 1980s [1]. Weight has increased in all age groups, but the increase has been largest among those under 50. This development has been paralleled by the increased use of computers at work, at school and at leisure. In 2013 it was estimated that most 16–24 year old Swedes used computers, and 83 % did so on a daily basis [2]. In 2014, 16–25 year olds spent an average of 7.6 h
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