Changes in screen time activity in Norwegian children from 2001 to 2008: two cross sectional studies

Within the project Fruits and Vegetables Make the Marks (FVMM), 1488 6th and 7th grade pupils from 27 Norwegian elementary schools completed a questionnaire including a question about time spent on television viewing and personal computer use in 2001 and 1339 pupils from the same schools completed the same questionnaire in 2008. Data were analyzed by multilevel linear mixed models.The proportions of 6th and 7th grade pupils at the 27 schools that reported screen time activity outside school of 2 hours/day or more decreased from 55% to 45% (p<0.001) from 2001 to 2008 when adjusting for sex, grade level and parental education. The decrease was most evident in 6th graders (51% to 37%) and in children with highly educated parents (54% to 39%).The present study shows that there has been a marked reduction in screen time activity outside school in this group of Norwegian 10–12 year olds from 2001 to 2008.Over the past 20 years there has been an expansion in screen-based communication and entertainment available to adolescents [1]. Following this, there has been an emerging concern about the negative health effects of screen time activity in children and adolescents. These effects include less time for physical activity [2], poorer academic performance [3], aggressive behaviour [4], higher energy-intake [5], more physical complaints [6], higher risk of overweight [7,8] and other metabolic risk factors [9]. In addition, a recent review concluded that sedentary behaviours track at moderate levels from childhood to adolescence [10]. The WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health identified physical inactivity together with poor nutrition as major risk factors for some of the leading causes of mortality [11].A systematic review on correlates of screen-viewing show that screen-viewing is not equally distributed across social and demographic groups [12]. A Norwegian study found differences in screen time activity between the sexes [13], that screen time increase w