Electronic Media Usage and Sugar Intake in Children

Purpose: To develop a questionnaire that assesses sugar intake and electronic media usage in children over a single day. Methods: 24 parents of healthy (ASA 1) children in mixed dentition between 6 and 9 years old were enrolled in the study. 6 subjects completed a questionnaire and participated in an in-depth interview regarding their child’s sugar intake and electronic media usage the previous day. The questionnaire was then changed as deemed necessary. This process was repeated with 6 more subjects. The final questionnaire was then distributed to 12 subjects, who completed the interview, and the results were analyzed to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. Food Score was defined as the total number of instances of food and drink consumption. Sugar Score was defined as the total number of instances of sugar-containing food and drink consumption, and EMTime was defined as the total number of time, in hours, spent using electronic media. After data analysis, one subject (subject 4-3) was excluded from the EMTime analysis due to dramatically inconsistent answers, and the analysis was completed again. Results: Subjects reported higher mean food scores on the questionnaire than in the interview, but lower mean sugar scores and electronic media times. Parents were able to consistently report food scores between the questionnaire and interview (r=.864, p=.000) but unable to consistently report Sugar Scores (r=.448, p=.144) or electronic media times (r=.485, p=.110). After subject 4-3 was excluded, parents were able to consistently report electronic media time (r=.831, p=.002). Conclusions: Subjects consistently reported their children’s food intake between the questionnaire and interview. Subjects did not consistently report their children’s sugar intake when compared to the coder, likely due to the subjects’ inability to accurately identify sugar/carbohydrate-containing foods. Subjects did not consistently report their children’s electronic media intake between the questionnaire and interview.