Screen use on children and adolescents’ physical health and development: Protocol for two umbrella reviews

Summary

Children and adolescents use screens and other digital media in most arenas. Screen use can have both positive and negative consequences for their physical health and development, but studies have been unable to draw firm conclusions.

We are conducting two umbrella reviews (systematic reviews of systematic reviews) on the effects and consequences of screen use in children and adolescents (0 to 19 years). We conduct a systematic literature search for systematic reviews that have summarized the effects and consequences of screen use in children and adolescents on:

1. Physical health, assessed as musculoskeletal complaints, headaches, and eye health (umbrella review 1)
2. Emotional, cognitive, and motor development (umbrella review 2)

Relevant subgroups of the population are children and adolescents with physical and mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, biological gender, sexual orientation (LGBTQ+) and minority/immigrant background. Relevant screen use includes PC, smartphone, tablet, game console, and TV with subgroups by time (active or passive screen time), content (educational or non-educational), and context (alone or with others). Two researchers independently assess first the title and abstract of retrieved references, and next relevant reviews in full text, in accordance with our predefined inclusion criteria. They then independently assess the risk of bias of the included systematic reviews using AMSTAR-2. We report results from the most recent reviews with the lowest risk of bias, and we assess our confidence in the results by using GRADE assessment, if it has not already been performed.