Smartphone use and its relationship with sedentary lifestyle in students

a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: new devices such as smartphones have been modifying and altering the routine of several people, especially the youngest who are connected at all the time and everywhere, through the facilities that these means provide, this has been making people become more and more connected in the interaction with technology and leaving physical activities aside, inducing them to be sedentary. Objective: to identify the relationship between smartphones use and student sedentary lifestyle. Methods: it is a systematic review through searches in national and international journals indexed in the databases Scielo, Lilacs, Pubmed and Web of Knowledge Isi, using the descriptors: Smartphone, Sedentarism, Students and Physical Activity. Articles published between 2010 and 2020 were included, with 4,957 articles found, of which only 13 studies were included in the analysis. Results: problems related to health were pointed out, such as: anxiety and obesity, with a direct relation to the sedentary lifestyle of young people, as well as sleep disorders, mood instability, depression and inadequate diet. Despite an increasing number of publications year on year, there is an incipient association between the use of smartphones and physical inactivity and, consequently, with a sedentary lifestyle. Conclusion: the present study allowed to verify the imprudence of young people regarding the excessive use of digital media, especially smartphones, directly reflecting on their health through the low performance of physical activities and also on the food consumed, creating an association with sedentary lifestyle. It becomes evident the need for interference by parents and school programs to use smartphones and other devices in a way that is beneficial to young people's health.

Keywords: Smartphone; Sedentary lifestyle; Physical Activity; Students; Health Promotion.