Abstract

Objective: The health system is the only way to access all young children and pediatric care providers are in the key position. Currently playing, reading and screen viewing habits are known as fundamental issues that affect child development however, there is insufficient data relating these issues in our country. We aimed to evaluate playing, reading and screen viewing habits of parents and how these habits are separated at different levels of health centers.

Material and Methods: A total of 451 parents (156 from third level - University Hospital-UH, 148 secondary level state hospital-SH and 147 from family health centers) attending a medical appointment for their 1-6 years old children in an outpatient clinic from January 2015 to January 2016 were given a questionnaire including socio-demographic data and the habits of families relating playing and reading and screen viewing.

Results: One out of 5 parents didn’t play with their children, there wasn’t a difference between centers however, this rate was higher in SH (25.7%). Playing not with the child was related to low socioeconomic status (p=0,020). In total 46.3 % of parents didn’t read to their child, this rate was highest in UH (52.6%). The frequency of reading was increased with age, the median age to start reading was the age of 23 months. Factors relating not reading were child age, maternal age and socioeconomic status. Mean screen time of children was 2.64 hours and, it was highest in SH (3.22 hours). Screen time was increased significantly after the age of 36 months (p = 0.000).

Conclusion: It was found that the families and children who applied to secondary and third level Health centers where pediatricians worked were more need to be supported and guided. İnterventions should be planned according to the level of health services.

Keywords: Family, Child development, Screen viewing, Reading book, Playing

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Çelen Yoldaş T, Özmert EN. Evaluating The Habits of Playing, Reading With Child And Screen Viewing of Families Applying to Health Centers at Different Levels. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2020 Sep. 29 [cited 2025 Aug. 23];14(5):422-7. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/664