Interaction of Sex and Sexual Maturation With Mobile and Screen Time in Adolescents

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of time spent in cell phone and screen time in adolescents moderated by physical activity level. Methods: A study with a representative sample of 772 adolescents (52.6% female) with a mean age of 16.63 ± 0.69 years selected in a sampling process by multiple stages. The cell phone and screen time were auto reported. Poisson regression analyzes verified the associations. Results: Were observed associations between nutritional status and cell phone use by insufficiently active adolescents (PR: 1.433; CI95%: 1.123 - 1.829; p = 0.004). Female (PR: 0.728; CI95%: 0.621 - 0.853; p = 0.001) and female sex*pubertal interaction (PR: 0.768; CI 95%: 0.637 - 0.925; p = 0.005) and female sex*post pubert (PR: 0.709; CI95%: 0.522 - 0.963; p = 0.028) with screen time in insufficiently active activities. Female sex (PR: 0.713; CI95%: 0.536 - 0.967; p = 0.029) and female sex*pubertal interaction term (PR: 0.622; CI 95%: 0.464 - 0.944; p = 0.023) with screen time on sufficiently active. Conclusions: physical activity level may moderate the relationship of overweight/obese adolescents with cell phone use. Females seem to be the main factor related to screen time.