Preventing harmful effects of prolonged computer use by children and adolescents : A participatory approach

Abstract

        Health impact in computer use among children and adolescents had raised a public concern especially in social aspect. This concern leads to a social network, comprising of students, parents, teachers, and related agencies, to protect children’s health from abuse of computer and internet. This study aimed to promote a learning process and participation among children and adults, as well as, to determine the extent of the problem of computer use among children. Subjects in this study were 1,159 students in grade 4-12 from 11 schools in Sathorn District.
        The duration of computer use among the studied group was 2.3 hours/day in average with standard deviation of 1.4. Only 24.8 percent of the subjects used computer mainly for education while 51.9 percent used computer mainly for playing game. Computer use among female students were found more for education and internet chat (p-value <0.05). Playing computer game decreased with higher educational level while chatting in internet increased with higher educational level (p-value <0.05). Regarding health impact, 54 percent of the students complained of eye discomfort while 50.5 percent had musculoskeletal problem. Most interventions found in the study were as follows: school offered alternatives in replacing computer game with music, sports and drawings that gave happiness and success to students. In addition, schools also organized school fair for parents and students highlighting health effects of long duration computer use among their students, exhibition and broadcast on health impact from computer use, and meeting with parents.
        The results of this study pointed to several recommendations, where the priority is to establish the national agenda on computer use among children and youth that involves all stakeholders since this issue is too complex to be solved by any party alone.