A nationwide survey on the daily screen time of Iranian children and adolescents: the CASPIAN - IV study

Background: leisure time activity is an important life-style habit. this study aims to determine the screen time of a nationally representative sample of iranian children and adolescents. methods: this nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted as part of the fourth survey of a surveillance system. the participants consisted of 14880 students,with aged range from 6 to 18 years,living in 30 provinces in iran. screen time,i.e. the time spent on watching television (tv)/video and computer games during leisure time,was assessed by using the questionnaire of the globasl student health survey of the world health organization. results: the study participants were 13486 school students (participation rate of 90.6%) with a mean age of 12. 47 (3.36) years. overall,75.6% of students were from urban and 24.4% from rural areas and 50.8% were boys respectively. overall,33.4% and 53% of students watched tv/video more than 2 h a day in their leisure time during school days and holidays,respectively. likewise,6.3% and 10.9% of students used computer more than 2 h a day in their leisure time during the school days and holidays,respectively. overall,47.1% of urban students and 24.2% of rural students used personal computer in their leisure time during the school days. the corresponding figures were 50.8% and 27.2% in weekends and holidays,respectively. conclusions: the time spent on screen activities is long in a considerably high number of iranian children and adolescents. it should be reduced by increasing the public awareness and by providing facilities for regular daily physic activity for students' leisure times.