Teens glued to phones risk 'modest' rise in ADHD symptoms: study
Teens glued to phones risk 'modest' rise in ADHD
symptoms: study
AFP • July 17, 2018
Tampa (AFP) - Could teenagers suffer symptoms of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after engaging in excessive smartphone
use?
A new study out Tuesday says digital overload could be
linked to a "modest" but significant rise in new ADHD behaviors,
offering a warning to parents about the potential dangers of too much screen
time.
The findings in the Journal of the American Medical
Association were based on nearly 2,600 Los Angeles teens who answered survey
questions over a two-year period -- making it one of the largest and longest
studies on the topic to date.
The more social media, streaming video, text messaging, music
downloads or online chats they engaged with, the more likely they were to
report symptoms like difficulty organizing and completing tasks, or trouble
remaining still.
About 10 percent of youths who said they commonly used
digital media platforms frequently showed new ADHD symptoms over the study
period, said the report.
In contrast, 4.6 percent of students who were not
frequent users of any digital activity showed ADHD symptoms.
Researchers cautioned that the rise in ADHD symptoms was
"modest" and at least some of the effect might be explained by
confounding factors.
Also, since the study was observational in nature and was
based on survey responses by the teens themselves, researchers said they could
not prove that smartphone use actually caused ADHD symptoms.
Still, the findings offer a solid basis for more research
because "this was a statistically significant association," said Adam
Leventhal, a professor of preventive medicine and psychology at the University
of Southern California.
"We can say with confidence that teens who were
exposed to higher levels of digital media were significantly more likely to
develop ADHD symptoms in the future."
Previous studies have shown that ADHD, a psychiatric
condition involving persistent difficulty sustaining attention, hyperactivity
and impulsivity, affects about seven percent of youths in the United States and
may be on the rise in some populations.
Earlier studies examining the effect of television
watching and playing video games found modest increases in ADHD among children.
According to Jessica Agnew-Blais, a postdoctoral research
fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's
College London, the authors were "rightfully cautious not to
over-interpret" their findings.
"The authors only assess ADHD symptom frequency, so
it remains unclear whether relatively small changes in ADHD symptom frequency
over these two years are disruptive or impairing in everyday life," she
said.
"It is worth noting that over 80 percent of students
reported high frequency use of digital media, and the vast majority of these
students do not have elevated ADHD symptoms."
Another expert who was not involved in the study, Andy
Przybylski, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, University
of Oxford, described the research as "interesting" but
"tentative."
"The study is a proof of concept that tells us we
need very large samples when we design future studies because the possible
effects are extremely small," he said.
The next studies on the topic should move away from
self-reported survey answers and include clinical diagnoses and external
measurements of device use, experts suggested.
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