TV, computer, tablet and smartphone use and autism spectrum disorder risk in early childhood: a nationally-representative study

Screen media use in early childhood has largely increased in recent years, even more so during the COVID-19 epidemic, and there is much discussion regarding its influence on neurodevelopment, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We examined the relationship between use of TV, computer, tablet a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health 2022-04, Vol.22 (1), p.865-7, Article 865
Main Authors: Melchior, Maria, Barry, Katharine, Cohen, David, Plancoulaine, Sabine, Bernard, Jonathan Y, Milcent, Karen, Gassama, Malamine, Gomajee, Ramchandar, Charles, Marie-Aline
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Autism
Autism spectrum disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder - epidemiology
Birth cohort study
Child, Preschool
Childhood
Children
Children & youth
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Computers
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Demographic aspects
ELFE
Families & family life
Health aspects
Humans
Life Sciences
Microcomputers
Mothers
Neurodevelopmental disorders
Parents & parenting
Pervasive developmental disorders
Public health
Regression analysis
Risk factors
Risk management
Screen media
Smart phones
Smartphone
Smartphones
Statistical analysis
Television
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Summary:Screen media use in early childhood has largely increased in recent years, even more so during the COVID-19 epidemic, and there is much discussion regarding its influence on neurodevelopment, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We examined the relationship between use of TV, computer, tablet and smartphone at age 2 years and risk of ASD assessed in telephone-based questionnaires among 12,950 children participating in the nationally representative ELFE ('Etude Longitudinale Française sur les Enfants') birth cohort study in France. In inverse-probability weighted (IPW) multinomial regression analyses, children's weekly or daily screen media use was associated with an increased likelihood of an intermediate risk of ASD (IPW-controlled OR for weekly use:1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.12; IPW-controlled OR for daily use:1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.08) but inversely associated with a high risk (IPW-controlled OR for weekly use: 0.60, 95% CI 0.50-0.73; IPW-controlled OR for daily use: 0.75, 95% CI 0.62-0.91), as ascertained by the M-CHAT. This was confirmed when studying TV as well as computer/tablet exposure separately. Overall, our nationally-representative study conducted among a large sample of 2-year-old children, indicates a complex relationship between screen exposure and ASD risk.
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/s12889-022-13296-5