title: Electronic screen use and selected somatic symptoms in 10-12 year old children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Screen-based media use by children and adolescents has increased in recent years but the consequences of their use are not well understood. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive examination of the relationship between screen-based activities and a selection of single and multiple self-reported somatic symptoms in a large sample of 10-12 year old children.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use data from the population-based 2011 Youth in Iceland school survey (N=10,829, response rate: 84.5%, boys: 49.9%) that is conducted triennially in 5th-7th grades in all secondary schools in Iceland. Self-reported measures of common screen-based activities were hypothesized to predict the odds of dizziness, tremors, headaches, stomach aches, and multiple symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In general the reported prevalence of symptoms increased with greater number of hours reported on screen based activity for boys and girls. This held for all individual screen activities as well as the cumulative measure of daily minutes spent on screen-based media and prevalence of one or more somatic symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study confirms previous findings and puts forth additional information concerning the relationship between the prevalence of electronic screen use and somatic symptoms in 10-12 year old children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland; Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, Iceland.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Taehtinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland; Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, Iceland; Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Inga Dora
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Sigfusdottir
authors.affiliation: Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, Iceland; Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Asgeir R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Helgason
authors.affiliation: Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, Iceland; Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, West Virginia University, School of Public Health, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, Morgantown, WV, USA. Electronic address: alkristjansson@hsc.wvu.edu.
authors.forename: Alfgeir L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Kristjansson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003201:Computers; D004244:Dizziness / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television; D013997:Time Factors; D014202:Tremor / Q000453:epidemiology; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Children; Iceland; Middle school; Screen use; Somatic symptoms