596 - Longitudinal Trends in Child Sleep, Physical Activity and Screen Use During COVID-19 Pandemic in NYC

Poster Number: 596
Publication Number: 596.208

Morgan Finkel, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; Alexis Bryan, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, United States; Ivette Partida, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States; Laura Raaen, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States; Ngoc Q. Duong, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States; Jeff Goldsmith, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, United States; Jennifer Woo Baidal, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

Background: Initial shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic had dramatic effects on child routines. Later effects are less understood.

Objective: To examine longitudinal changes in childhood behaviors of sleep, physical activity (PA), and screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/Methods: We performed a prospective, longitudinal online survey of parents with children under age 19 years recruited from a single academic medical center in New York City. Data was collected Spring 2020 and Fall 2020. The main outcomes were 1) parental report of child sleep, PA, and screen time and 2) parental perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on those activities. We performed paired analyses with Wilcoxon Ranked Sign Tests for continuous variables and Sign Tests for ordinal variables to examine longitudinal changes in parental report of child behaviors and perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on behaviors.

Results: 277 participants completed the survey in Spring 2020 and 227 (82% retention) during Fall 2020. 12.6% of parents filled out the survey for a child under 24 months, 32.5% for children 2-7 years old, and 54.9% for children 8-18 years old. 50.5% of children were female and 56.0% were Latinx. Among the 227 children with data at both time points, child bedtimes and wake times shifted earlier (p < 0.001 for both), length of time in bed decreased (p < 0.001), and hours of screen time decreased (p=0.04) from Spring to Fall 2020. In Spring 2020, when asked to compare to behaviors before the pandemic, the largest percentage of parents perceived no change in child sleep (47.7%), decreases in child exercise (69.2%), and increases in child screen time (75.2%). From Spring to Fall 2020, parental perceptions about child sleep shifted in the direction of less sleep (% reporting more or a lot more sleep, Spring: 30.0%, Fall: 15.0%, p=0.04), parental perceptions about child exercise shifted in the direction of more exercise (% reporting less or a lot less exercise, Spring: 69.2%, Fall: 55.2%, p < 0.001), and parental perceptions about child screen time significantly shifted in the direction of less screen time (% reporting a lot more screen time, Spring: 39.2%, Fall: 25.2%, p=0.01).Conclusion(s): Parents reported changes in child sleep, lower PA, and higher screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some improvements in child behaviors were found in Fall 2020 compared to Spring 2020, many children continued to have unhealthy behaviors that may put them at higher risk for a variety of adverse physical and mental health outcomes.