Abstract

S. A. Patel*, S. A. Singh, S. S. Ezhava, K. D. Rajpurohit, A.K. Pandya, S.S. Bhatt, K. Parmar, N. F. Christy

ABSTRACT

The global health crisis in the form of COVID-19 has forced people to shift their routine activities into a remote environment with the help of technology. The outbreak of the COVID-19 has caused several organizations to be shut down and forced them to initiate work from home employing technology as well as kids have to stay at home and study from home which impact on their studies. Now more than ever, it's important for people and institutions to understand the impact of excessive use of mobile phone technology and electronic gadgets on human health, cognition, and behaviour for kids and adult. Multiple linear regression analyses estimated associations between mental health and resiliency factors and total screen use. Screen time is associated with obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, myopia, depression, sleep disorders, and many other noncommunicable diseases. Hence, it is critical to assess the adverse health outcomes that may appear as long-term consequences of such behaviour. In this narrative literature review, we aimed to describe the epidemiological burden of prolonged screen time and associated problems in COVID-19 from available articles retrieved from Medline and Google Scholar using a non-systematic approach. The epidemiological burden is primarily described as the prevalence and the average duration of screen time of the individuals or population studied. Secondarily, key factors associated with these problems are summarized to inform the risk and protective factors.