Tempo de tela utilizado por adolescentes e associação com risco de suicídio: uma contribuição de uma coorte de nascimento de São Luís, Ma

Abstract

Researchers are investigating the consequences of using screens on a variety of physical and mental health outcomes, the need for more research involving the adolescent population and the consequences for their mental health has already been identified. The objective of this research is to analyze the association between screen time used by teenagers and risk of suicide. This is a cross-sectional study with data from 2.515 adolescents (18 and 19 years old) belonging to the third phase of the birth cohort, in São Luís, Maranhão, carried out in 2016. The exposure variable was the screen time investigated from a questionnaire and the outcome variable was the risk of suicide verified from the MINI instrument. Independent variables were chosen, grouped in a hierarchical theoretical model, corresponding to a distal block with sociodemographic variables (sex, study, work, marital status, skin color, religion, divorced parents and income), intermediate block with lifestyle variables (sleep, alcohol consumption pattern, leisure and BMI) and proximal block with variables related to mental health (suffered aggression, general violence, bullying, perceived stress and mental health). For a proposed association analysis, logistic regression was used. Adolescents who are at risk of suicide accounted for 5.48% of the sample and the average total time in front of electronics totaled 9.16 (± 6.48) hours. An analysis of the association between exposure and outcome variables resulted in crude analysis: OR = 1.03 (IC95% = 1.01-1.06, p=0.013) and adjusted analysis: OR = 1.03 (IC95% = 1.00-1.06, p=0.040) with adjustment for the variables: sex, religion, sleep, alcohol consumption pattern, leisure, bullying and mental health. The specialized literature, in general, brings an association between excessive screen time and mental health outcomes, including suicide. However, the risk of suicide must be analyzed as a complex and multidetermined phenomenon, requiring the consideration of several factors that are intrinsic to the culture of valuing the life of the society under study, which compromises the generalization of certain findings. It was concluded that it was possible to find an association between screen time and the risk of suicide in adolescence from the sample under analysis.