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The National
16 hours ago
- Health
- The National
More than a third of children spend over seven hours a day on screens, UAE study finds
More than one third of children in the UAE spend over seven hours each weekday on screens, according to new research. The findings, published as schools in the country take tougher action to restrict mobile phone use, also highlighted a link between the excessive use of electronic devices and a lack of exercise. Carried out by University of Sharjah and American University of Beirut, the research reported that 37.7 per cent of students spent more than seven hours on screens each weekday, outside of lessons. 'High screen time was associated with lower physical activity levels, as 68.8 per cent of children who exceeded seven hours of screen time did not participate in any physical activity,' the study said, referring to time outside of lessons during the school week. Based on data about mobile phone, laptop, television and tablet use submitted by parents of 300 children in the UAE aged from four to 17, the paper also found that screen time increased with age. What can parents do? The findings highlighted, the researchers said, 'the need for families to take proactive measures to limit screen time and encourage more physical activity in their children'. 'Parents should be encouraged to set clear limits on screen time and promote alternative activities, such as sports, outdoor play and family outings,' the researchers said. With more than six in 10 children eating sweets while using screens, the researchers said that 'addressing dietary habits is crucial'. The new paper is titled, 'Assessing the effect of screen time on physical activity in children based on parent-reported data: a cross-sectional study,' and is published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science. Aine McGlue, head of secondary at the British International School Abu Dhabi, said that previous research showed that today's children were less active than young people from previous generations. 'So much of it is caused by inappropriate use of digital media,' she said. 'To expect a child to have the social and emotional maturity to detach themselves from a phone is unreasonable … Schools have to take a proactive stance.' In August, at the start of the 2024/25 academic year, BISAD, a Nord Anglia school, introduced a ban on mobile phone use by pupils during school hours. It is one of many UAE schools to have brought in such restrictions. Ms McGlue said that the policy was 'quite contentious at first', but parents were invited to coffee mornings during which the rule was explained, with the school highlighting research around the link between reduced screen time and improved mental and physical health. The rationale was also explained to pupils. 'Kids need to know that we're not implementing this as a punishment: there's research and evidence behind this to say this is in their best interests,' Ms McGlue said. 'The policy is clear: if you're seen with your phone, the phone is confiscated. If your phone is taken a second time, it's the parents' responsibility to come in and get the phone themselves.' Alternatives to screen time By, for example, installing table tennis tables, the school has given students additional things to do outside of lessons, instead of using phones, she said. 'At lunchtime, when kids might be feeling a little unsure about how they're going to use this time, they're actually out now playing football, they're out playing basketball,' Ms McGlue said. 'We've set up open mic sessions so that kids can creatively perform using their music skills. They have an audience around the things that they're doing.' Research from many other nations has highlighted the potential harms linked to excessive use of screen devices. In a study based on data from New Zealand, Dr Ladan Hashemi, of City St George's, part of the University of London, found that when families had stricter rules about using screens when children were of pre-school age, obesity rates were lower later on in childhood. Dr Hashemi told The National that excessive screen time, poor diet, lack of physical activity and poor sleep were all linked. Using screens too often can, for example, encourage unhealthy snacking, while late-night screen use can disrupt sleep. 'Families who had better regulation around the use of screen devices, their children were more likely to have better sleep, longer sleep, and they were less likely to spend time on screen devices, which means they have more time for physical activity. These are strong contributors to reducing childhood obesity,' Dr Hashemi said. She said that for school-age children, less than two hours per day on screens was widely recommended – but also that parents should set an example. 'You can't just tell children to abandon devices if you as a parent are spending too much time on screens. You need, as a parent, to set an example as a role model,' she said. Dr Hashemi said that parents may 'use screen devices as a babysitter' to occupy their children, so cutting down on screen time meant that parents should provide alternative things to do. 'If you restrict the children's screen time, you need to give them more means to spend their time – family time, activity time, school-based activities, community-based activities,' she said. The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that for children aged two to five, non-educational screen time should be limited to about one hour per weekday and three hours per day at weekends. For children aged six and older, the academy recommends that parents 'encourage healthy habits and limit activities that include screens'. Screens should be turned off during family meals and outings, the academy suggests, and turned off and removed from bedrooms at least half an hour before lights out. In March, the UAE's first digital detox clinic for children has opened in Abu Dhabi offering a programme to address the growing problem of screen addiction in young people.
National Post
2 days ago
- Health
- National Post
Struggle to lift five kilograms? Your health could be at risk, study finds
Scientists at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates have devised a simple test that they can say can predict an increased risk of developing a host of health problems in older adults. All you have to do is try to pick up a five-kilogram weight. Article content Struggle with that, they say, and you have a significantly higher risk of experiencing a lower quality of life, higher rates of depression, chronic lung diseases, hip fractures, joint disorders, high cholesterol, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, osteoarthritis and more. Article content Article content The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports under a no-nonsense title: 'The simple task of lifting five kilograms serves as a predictor of age-related disorders in old adults.' Article content Article content The large-scale study involved 51,536 'geriatric adults' — that is to say 50 and older, a definition that may annoy some — from 14 European countries as well as Israel. It was a roughly even split between men and women, with about a third of the group aged between 60 and 69, another third between 70 and 79, and the rest younger or older. (About 4 per cent were 90 and above.) Article content Participants were asked to report if they had difficulty lifting five kilograms in 2013 — 80.5 per cent said they did not — and were then followed for several years to see which diseases developed among each group. For a given disease, participants were excluded if they already had it in the baseline year. Article content Take high blood pressure. In 2013, just under 60 per cent of the group were free of a diagnosis of high blood pressure. Of those, 21.5 per cent went on to develop it. But among the participants who had trouble lifting the weight when the study began, that number amounted to 26.2 per cent. Article content Article content For hip fractures, the overwhelming majority (97 per cent) did not have one when the study started. But in the years that followed, 3.5 per cent of those who had trouble lifting the weight experienced a hip fracture, versus just 1.5 per cent of those who did not struggle with the weight. Article content Article content Parsing the data between younger and older ages, the researchers found that men and women under 65 who had trouble lifting five kilograms were most at risk of developing depression, low quality of life, low hand-grip strength (which can also indicate risks of other diseases) and Alzheimer's. Article content For older men and women who struggled with the weight, risk of Alzheimer's dropped somewhat while the other three conditions remained top of list. But for almost every condition the researchers tracked, struggling to lift five kilograms at the start of the study was a clear indicator of greater risk at the end. The only diseases that didn't fit the pattern were cancer and diabetes, where risk did not change.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists introduce scalable method to efficiently squeeze hydrogen from seawater
Scientists have introduced a new method that can efficiently squeeze hydrogen from seawater. Developed by researchers at the University of Sharjah, the method offers a clean way to get hydrogen directly from seawater without the need for desalination. The method can be effective for arid coastal microenvironment-engineered, multi-layered electrode resists the corrosion and performance degradation typically caused by chloride ions in traditional seawater electrolysis. In their experiment, researchers successfully extracted hydrogen without removing the mineral salts found in seawater or adding any chemicals. Published in the journal Small, the study utilizes the strategic integration of carbonate (CO₃2⁻) Lewis base sites anchored on a Cobalt layered double hydroxides (Co LDH) embedded within a NiBOx nanostructure supported by a Ni(OH)₂/NF research team revealed that incorporating boron into the Ni-OOH matrix forms a protective metaborate film, preventing metal dissolution and non-conductive oxide formation, thereby enhancing current collector corrosion resistance in saline seawater conditions."We developed a novel, multi-layered electrode that can extract hydrogen directly from seawater efficiently and sustainably. Traditional methods face a host of problems, mainly corrosion and performance degradation caused by chloride ions in seawater," said Dr. Tanveer Ul Haq, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sharjah and the study's lead author. The custom-built electrode overcomes multiple challenges by creating a protective and reactive microenvironment that boosts performance while resisting researchers' new advanced anode design achieves an industrially viable current density of 1.0 A cm⁻2 at 1.65 V under standard conditions, marking a significant step toward scalable, desalination-free hydrogen production directly from seawater."The CO₃2⁻ Lewis base covalently functionalized on Co-active sites, establishes a dynamic interaction that continuously splits water molecules while sequestering H⁺ ions, generating a localized acidic microenvironment," said researchers in the study."This acidification enhances OER kinetics and protects against chloride attack and precipitate formation, addressing key stability and efficiency barriers in direct seawater electrolysis." By eliminating the need for freshwater and energy-intensive desalination, the technology could enable solar-powered hydrogen farms in arid coastal areas such as those in the UAE, where seawater and sunlight are plentiful but freshwater is scarce. If scaled up properly, the system could make it easier to produce large quantities of 'green hydrogen', produced through electrolysis with using renewable energy, reported Engineering & Technology. Yousef Haik, Professor of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at the University of Sharjah and the study's corresponding author, stated that the new system generates hydrogen at industrially relevant rates—1 ampere per square centimeter—with low energy input. This could revolutionize how we think about hydrogen production in coastal regions, especially in arid countries like the UAE, where freshwater is limited but sunlight and seawater are abundant. The technology's strength lies in the electrode's advanced, multilayered structure, which not only withstands harsh seawater conditions but thrives in them, reported SciTechDaily.
