Evaluation of Screen Time, Oral Health Status, and Sleep Disturbances in Children between 6 and 13 years: A Cross-sectional Study
Vaishnavi Padmanabhan, Sushmita Shan, K Vivek, Kavitha Swaminathan, H Selvakumar · 2026
Read Evaluation of Screen Time, Oral Health Status, and Sleep Disturbances in Children between 6 and 13 years: A Cross-sectional Study by Vaishnavi Padmanabhan, Sushmita Shan, K Vivek, Kavitha Swaminathan, H Selvakumar (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13408508.txt.
Description
Vaishnavi Padmanabhan and colleagues examined screen time, oral health, and sleep disturbances in children aged 6 to 13. Their 2026 cross-sectional study surveys 370 children visiting a pediatric dentistry department between July 2024 and January 2025, using a validated screen questionnaire, a sleep disturbance scale, and a caries index. Screen exposure may affect sleep and oral health, yet their joint patterns in this age group had been little measured.
Most children reported one to two hours of weekday screen time and two to three hours on weekends, with 98.6 percent using screens during meals and 92.7 percent within an hour before sleep. Screen use during meals tracked significantly with both cavitated and noncavitated caries, while total sleep score showed only a weak, nonsignificant link to caries. The paper flags mealtime and bedtime screen habits as targets for family guidance.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Vaishnavi Padmanabhan, Sushmita Shan, K Vivek, Kavitha Swaminathan, H Selvakumar |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 25 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |