Association between electronic device use and health status among a middle-aged and elderly population: a cross-sectional analysis in the UK Biobank

Wenming Wei; Huan Liu; Bolun Cheng; Xiaoyue Qin; Dan He; Na Zhang; Yijing Zhao; Qingqing Cai; Sirong Shi; Xiaoge Chu; Yan Wen; Yumeng Jia; Feng Zhang

doi:10.1007/s10389-023-01886-5

Association between electronic device use and health status among a middle-aged and elderly population: a cross-sectional analysis in the UK Biobank

Z Gesundh Wiss. 2023 Mar 27:1-10. doi: 10.1007/s10389-023-01886-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Wenming Wei^#¹, Huan Liu^#¹, Bolun Cheng¹, Xiaoyue Qin¹, Dan He¹, Na Zhang¹, Yijing Zhao¹, Qingqing Cai¹, Sirong Shi¹, Xiaoge Chu¹, Yan Wen¹, Yumeng Jia¹, Feng Zhang¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Trace Elements and Endemic Diseases of National Health and Family Planning Commission, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases of Ministry of Education of China, Key Laboratory for Disease Prevention and Control and Health Promotion of Shaanxi Province, School of Public Health, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University, No. 76 Yan Ta West Road, Shaanxi 710061 Xi'an, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Aim: Few previous studies have investigated the impact of multiple types of electronic devices on health status, and the moderating effects of gender, age, and BMI. Our aim is to examine the relationships between the use of four types of electronics and three health status indicators in a middle-aged and elderly population, and how these relationships varied by gender, age, and BMI.

Subject and methods: Using data from 376,806 participants aged 40-69 years in the UK Biobank, we conducted a multivariate linear regression to estimate the association between electronic device use and health status. Electronics use was categorized as TV watching, computer use, computer gaming, and mobile phone use, and health status included self-rated health (SRH), multisite chronic pain (MCP), and total physical activity (TPA). Interaction terms were utilized to assess whether the above associations were modified by BMI, gender, and age. Further stratified analysis was performed to explore the role of gender, age, and BMI.

Results: Higher levels of TV watching (B_SRH = 0.056, B_MCP = 0.044, B_TPA= -1.795), computer use (B_SRH = 0.007, B_TPA= -3.469), and computer gaming (B_SRH = 0.055, B_MCP = 0.058, B_TPA= -6.076) were consistently associated with poorer health status (all P < 0.05). Contrastingly, earlier exposure to mobile phones (B_SRH = -0.048, B_TPA= 0.933, B_MCP = 0.056) was inconsistent with health (all P < 0.05). Additionally, BMI (B_{computer use-SRH}= 0.0026, B_phone-SRH= 0.0049, B_TV-MCP= 0.0031, and B_TV-TPA= -0.0584) exacerbated the negative effects of electronics use, and male (B_phone-SRH = -0.0414, B_phone-MCP = -0.0537, B_phone-TPA= 2.8873) were healthier with earlier exposure to mobile phones (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the adverse health effects associated with watching TV, computer use, and computer gaming were consistent and were moderated by BMI, gender, and age, which advances a comprehensive understanding of the association between multiple types of electronic devices and health status, and provides new perspectives for future research.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-023-01886-5.

Keywords: BMI; Electronic device use; Gender; Multisite chronic pain; Self-rated health; Total physical activity.

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