Correlation between quality of physical activity, sleep pattern and screen time on anthropometry in school going children between the age 6-12 years in post covid era - cross sectional study

SARS COV-2 VIRUS was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China in 2019. And the WHO declared the outbreak as public health emergency of international concern, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020. First case was detected in India on- January 27, 20202.

India has already had 3 waves; among them the first two waves had a very bad impact on the entire population. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social distancing policies such as home confinement, school closures, and minimal/no outdoor play for all children, resulted in unusual lifestyle changes in children and adolescents and lead to increased usage of gadgets and screen time. Studies have shown that the lockdown measures have affected the general well-being of children and adolescents more profoundly than the infection itself. Due to lockdown, schools were shut and classes were conducted online. Previously there were recommendations for screen time based on the age of child, which were being followed sparingly. Due to online teaching all the children were exposed to gadgets and were forced to outway from the recommendation.  Because of lockdown the kids were confined to home and physical activities significantly reduced. Since the outbreak, there has been increasing interest in the impact of these policies on physical activity (PA), screen time, and sleep patterns among children and adolescents. The prevalence of physically inactive school-aged children increased from 21% in January 2020 to 66% in March 2020

Sleep especially, night sleep has a very important role to play in the circadian rhythm and general well being of child. Hormones such as growth hormone, melatonin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (GH and ACTH) have diurnal regulation and is related to sleep. Studies have shown potential influence of the COVID 19 pandemic on sleep quality in children and adolescents. Children also had a longer sleep duration, with delayed sleep onset and wake-up times, as a result of homeschooling, increased screen time and lack of physical activity. Although adequate sleep is mandatory for children, researchers found a pooled prevalence of sleep disturbances of up to 54% in children during the pandemic.

A recent report in the US showed that the non-academic screen time of children doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic from 3.8 to 7.7 h a day. This raises concerns regarding the known potential harms of excessive screen time, mainly the risks to health physical and mental health such as greater obesity and higher depressive symptoms, among school-aged children.

The COVID-19 pandemic could have exacerbated existing lifestyle problems such as physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles due to missed Physical activity classes which used to be mandatory before in school, because of lockdown the peer to peer group interaction/ play were affected and contributed to the increased screen time.

Studies have shown, onset of chronic health conditions like obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, etc are due to lifestyle modifications in early age.

I would like to conduct a study to know the correlation between lifestyle habits, including physical activity, sleep patterns, and screen time and  anthropometry, post COVID-19 outbreak and in order to examine the impact of it on children.