Impact of Screentime on quality of life in  children with Autism and Social communication  disorder –  A Comparative study
Creators: name: Harshitha S
name: Perumalsathya S
name: Devika S. Kumar
name: Arul Devi
name: Lal, D.V.Nair
Publisher: name: IJDBP
Year: 2023
Subjects: Autism , SCD , screen -time , quality of life , neurodevelopmental disorder

description: (9) April  2023 | Volume 1  |  Issue 2
Abstract
Background:
Autism    is    a    neurodevelopmental    disorder  
with   impairment   in   social   emotional   and  
communication    domains    and    presence    of  
repetitive   behaviours   and   restrictive   interest.
Social communication disorder is closely related  
to  Autism  and  is  characterized  by  a  persistent  
difficult   y i   n usin   g verba   l an   d nonverbal  
communication in a socially appropriate manner  
with absence of stereotypical behaviour present  
in autism. Excessive screen time has significant  
impact on the quality of life of children especially  
those  with  neurodevelopmental  disorders  like  
autism,   SCD.Quality   of   life   evaluation   has  
a  significant  influenc e o n th e treatmen t and  
intervention  options  of  ASD  children.  Hence,  
this  study  was  conducted  to  compare  the  effect  
of screentime in quality of life of children with  
autism and SCD.
Methods:
60  children  in  the  age  group  of  2-10  years  
diagnosed with ASD/SCD along with 60 age and  
sex  matched  normal  children  as  controls  were  
included  in  the  study. After  applying  exclusion  
criteria,   informed   consent,   detailed   history  
including  complete  details  of  screen  exposure  
was obtained and evaluation was done. Pediatric  
Quality of life inventory (PedsQL) was used to  
assess  the  quality  of  life  of  these  children.Data  
were  analysed  and  comparison  was  done  using  
SPSS-23 statistical software.
Results:
In the study,8 girls and 20 boys were diagnosed  
with  SCD  and  10  girls  and  22  boys  were  
diagnosed  with  ASD.65%  of  children  were  in  
2-5  years  of  age  and  35  %  were  in  5-10  year  
age group. Children with ASD with screen time  
<2hrs  was  59.3%  and  >2hrs  was  40.7%  and  in  
SCD, screen time < 2 hours was 82.1% and  >2  
hours was 17.8%. 8(72.7%) children with severe  
ASD had screen time >2 hours while only 1 child  
with severe SCD had screen time >2 hours.The  
quality of life was significantly different between  
the control and the ASD/SCD groups with ASD  
group  more  significantly  affected . Further , the  
difference  in  quality  of  life    was  statistically  
significant  with  ASD  and  SCD  having  higher  
screen   exposure,   with   ASD   children   more  
affected (p value < 0.01%)
Conclusion:
Quality of life is affected in children with ASD  
and SCD, but more so in ASD children with screen  
exposure. Hence parents must strictly adhere to  
the  screen  time  guidelines  of  Indian  Academy  
of  Pediatrics  to  improve  the  overall  prognosis INDIAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS
(10) April  2023 | Volume 1  |  Issue 2      Aadarsh Pvt. Ltd.
and  quality  of  life  in  children  with  autism  
and  SCD,  which  in  turn  may  have  significant  
effect  on  effectivenes s o f therapy. Whil e giving  
therapy  with  electronic  tools  in  children  with  
communication  disorders,  specific  caution  on  
quality of program should be considered for the  
ASD subgroups than in SCD