Maternal Depression and Children's Screen Overuse

BACKGROUND: It is known that there are various factors associated with children's screen overuse. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of maternal depression on 2–5-year-old children's overuse of various household screen devices. METHODS: Participants were from the Internet-Cohort for Understanding of internet addiction Risk factors/Rescue in Early livelihood (I-CURE) study, an observational prospective cohort study in Korea. Screen time for six types of screen devices (smartphone, television, computer, tablet, video gaming console, and portable gaming console) were assessed by parental questionnaire. Maternal depression was measured by the Korean version of the Beck Depression Inventory II. Logistic regression models were run to determine the association between maternal depression and children's screen overuse. RESULTS: Maternal depression was associated with children's television overuse after adjusting for other factors (odds ratio, 1.954; P = 0.034). Contrary to expectation, the relationship between maternal depression and screen time was not present on other devices such as smartphones, computers and tablets. CONCLUSION: Maternal depression is related with 2–5-year-old children's television overuse. Interventions in maternal depressive symptoms and the associated changes in parent-child relationship can be useful for preventing children's television overuse.

Relationship between Social Activity and Cognitive Function in Korean Elderly

OBJECTIVES: Among non-pharmaceutical measures for preventing cognitive impairment, involving in social activities is known to be very effective. We tried to examine the correlation between social activity and cognitive function. METHODS: This study was based on the Suwon Project, a cohort comprising of non-random convenience samples of ethnic Koreans aged 60 years and above. All the subjects completed the study questionnaire which included demographic characteristics, current and past history of illnesses, drug history, Korean version of Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), Korean version of Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale, and Beck Anxiety Inventory. We checked the time consumed in each 9 social activities through the checklist. RESULTS: On multiple logistic regression analysis, the total time spent in social activities wasinversely associated with the K-MMSE score after adjusting confounding variables like age, sex, education level, depression, anxiety and vascular risk factor (beta=-0.041, p=0.024). On the other hand, correlation was found between K-MMSE score and time spent in participating in religious party (beta=0.053, p=0.003) as well as time spent in elder's university (beta=0.040, p=0.025) after adjustingage, sex, education, depression, anxiety and vascular risk factor. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that involving in quality social activities might be more effective in improving cognitive function than spending longer total time in any social activity.