Study to help reduce screen time among adults

Professor Matthew Buman of the ASU College of Health Solutions joins us to talk about his StandUPTV study and cutting back on screen time.

People are on their screens and devices an average of three and a half hours a day. This does not include time spent on screens during a person’s professional occupation. Buman believes this addition to screen time is leading to obesity and other chronic conditions.

“There’s lots of evidence to suggest that too much sitting time, particularly while watching a screen, tends to be really bad for your health, whether it’s diabetes, cardiovascular disease or even early mortality,” Buman said.

This type of sitting tends to be more harmful that just sitting at work, but the reason is not known, according to Buman.

He is looking for volunteers in a study to research how people can kick the addiction and cut back on screen time.

The goal of the StandUPTV Study is to develop an optimized intervention for reducing recreational, sedentary screen time in adults. This study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, and is a collaboration with Arizona State University and California Polytechnic State University.

Adults only spend half of their sedentary screen time viewing a traditional television. The other half is spent on mobile streaming platforms (e.g., Netflix) that are likely to promote “binge-watching.” There is a need for innovative approaches to reduce sedentary screen time among adults that are responsive to current and emerging technologies.

Buman is aiming to develop tools and strategies to help people with this.

“What we’ve found out is that a lot of people want to watch less screens, but they don’t really feel like they have the tools to be able to do that. And so we are conducting a clinical trial now that’s testing different behavioral strategies that give people encouragement, reminders and different types of strategies to help them reduce it,” Buman said.

There are still some spots available in the study. Please visit StandUPTVStudy.com to learn more and see if you are eligible!