Social Science Notes

IMPACT OF MOBILE & OTHER GADGETS ON CHILDREN AMID CORONA VIRUS LOCKDOWN | STUDY

Around 65% children have become device addictive in recent months and are unable to stay away from the device even for half an hour. Children are expressing anger, crying, not listening to parents, showing irritable behaviour when asked to leave the device.

These facts have come to light in a sample survey carried out by physicians at JK Lone Hospital in Jaipur on 203 children to study the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on child health.

The survey says that a total of 65.2 per cent of students have reported physical problems, 23.40% have gained weight, 26.90% have suffered headache/ irritability and 22.40% had reported eye pain and itching.

In fact, 70.70% students with high screen exposure during the lockdown days have behavioural problems, 23.90% skipped their daily routines, 20.90 per cent became careless, 36.80 per cent became stubborn and 17.40% reported a reduced attention span.

The study was conceived by Dr Ashok Gupta, Medical Superintendent & Senior Professor, Department of Pediatrics. Under his direction, this study was carried out by Dr. Ramesh Chaudhary, Dr.Dhan Raj Bagri, Dr.Kamlesh Agarwal, Dr.Vivek Athwani and Dr. Anil Sharma.

In view of the prevailing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data was gathered on electronic platforms and social media for the study in which the latest and standard questionnaires were used to collect the data.

After obtaining consent, questionnaires were sent to the parents.

The information pertaining to around 55% boys and 45% girls was shared by parents residing in the major cities of Rajasthan such as Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer, Ganganagar, Bhilwara, Sikar, Churu, Alwar, Hanumangarh, Nagaur, Bharatpur, as well as cities outside Rajasthan such as Delhi and NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Agra, Lucknow, Chandigarh.

The survey said that children used mobiles, laptops, computers and tablets available at home out of which mobiles was the most used tool.

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