Association between Screen Time and Sociodemographic Factors, Physical Activity, and
BMI among Children in Six European Countries (Feel4Diabetes): A Cross-Sectional Study
Screen time among children in most European countries is notably high and is influenced
by various sociodemographic and other factors. Our study aimed to explore the associations
between parents’ sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, body mass
index (BMI), physical activity, risk status for type 2 diabetes, and their children’s
BMI, physical activity, and screen time. The data were sourced from the 2016 Feel4Diabetes
study, involving 12,280 parents and 12,211 children aged 6–9 years (average age 8.21
years) in a cross-sectional study design. We used a logistic regression model to identify
potential factors associated with children’s screen time. The results showed that
mothers with tertiary education (OR = 0.64; 95%CI = 0.49–0.82; p < 0.001), the middle
age group (45–54 years) (OR = 0.81 95%CI = 0.66–0.98; p = 0.033), and families with
higher incomes (middle–OR = 0.85; 95%CI = 0.75–0.97; p = 0.014; high–OR = 0.8; 95%CI
= 0.69–0.93; p = 0.003) were associated with a decreased chance of children spending
more than 2 h/day in front of the screen. In contrast, maternal overweight/obesity
(OR = 1.15; 95%CI = 1.03–1.29; p = 0.013) and lower physical activity in children
were linked to an increased likelihood of more than 2 h of screen time per day. Our
findings suggest that targeted interventions should be developed to mitigate excessive
screen time, particularly focusing on low-income families and mothers with low educational
levels.