Deleterious effect of increased screen time among professionals during the covid-19 pandemic in India

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic made the government to impose lockdown restricting the movement of the population. Staying at homes throughout the day has led to increased screentime among all the ages of the population considerably. However,our study was conducted to investigate the effect of increased screen time on sleep wake pattern, mental health and overall health and well-being of adults during COVID-19 lockdown.An electronic questionnaire was circulated among the general public and results were obtained through google forms. Questions regarding sleep pattern, depression, screen time were included in the E-questionnaire. The analysis of the data was doneusing proportion test and Chi-square test. Statistically significant results were also obtained using cluster analysis and represented with the aid of a dendrogram. We found that there exists an association between increased screen time of adults during the lockdown with their sleep pattern, mental health and overall well-being. Adults with increased screen time have experienced mood swings, hazardous effects like eye pain, headache, watering eyes, etc.