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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Endocrinology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1447372

Association of screen exposure/sedentary behavior and precocious puberty/early puberty

Provisionally accepted
Xinyu Wu Xinyu Wu 1,2*Lingmei Wang Lingmei Wang 1,2Peng Xue Peng Xue 3,4Jingyi Tang Jingyi Tang 3,4Haodong Wang Haodong Wang 1,2*Huijun Kong Huijun Kong 5Cuilan Lin Cuilan Lin 6,7*Bo Chang Bo Chang 1,2*Shijian Liu Shijian Liu 3,4*
  • 1 Dalian Women and Children’s Medical Center(Group), Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
  • 2 Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
  • 3 Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai, China
  • 4 School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
  • 5 Qufu People’s Hospital, Qufu, Shandong Province, China
  • 6 Boai Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
  • 7 Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background ：In recent years, with the development of society, children's daily exposure to screen time has gradually increased. Screen exposure and sedentary behavior have brought a host of harms to children's lives. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of screen exposure and sedentary behavior on precocious puberty and early development. Methods： This is a cross-sectional study in the school-based population. A total of 3,560 children were recruited from Qufu City, Shandong province using multistage stratified cluster random sampling. All study subjects had a physical examination by professional pediatricians in October 2019, and were investigated with health questionnaires. Precocious puberty is defined as development of secondary sexual signs in boys before 9 years or in girls before 8 years. Screen time was calculated as the average of screen time on weekdays and weekend days, and sedentary time was calculated as the average of sedentary time on weekdays and weekend days. After adjusting for potential confounders, logistic regression was used to examine the association between screen exposure and sedentary behavior and early puberty and precocious puberty. Results： Sedentary time was a risk factor for precocious puberty and early development (OR = 1.428, 95%CI= 1.087-1.876) in girls without adjustment. No significant association was found between screen exposure and early puberty and early development both in girls and boys. Conclusions ：Excessive sedentary behavior was associated with an increased risk of early puberty, especially in girls, while there was no significant association between screen exposure and early puberty and early development. In addition, further longitudinal investigations are needed to determine the causal relationship between screen exposure, sedentary behavior and precocious puberty.

    Keywords: Screen exposure, sedentary behavior, precocious puberty, Early puberty, Obesity

    Received: 11 Jun 2024; Accepted: 06 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu, Wang, Xue, Tang, Wang, Kong, Lin, Chang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xinyu Wu, Dalian Women and Children’s Medical Center(Group), Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
    Haodong Wang, Dalian Women and Children’s Medical Center(Group), Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
    Cuilan Lin, Boai Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
    Bo Chang, Dalian Women and Children’s Medical Center(Group), Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
    Shijian Liu, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.