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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of children aged 2 to 5 years who get no more than 1 hour of screen time a day — PA‑13 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), HRSA/MCHB

Baseline: 43.9 percent of children aged 2 to 5 years had total screen time of no more than 1 hour a day in 2018-19

Target: 48.9 percent

Numerator
Number of children aged 2 to 5 years with total screen time for no more than 1 hour a day.
Denominator
Number of children aged 2 to 5 years.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline and the Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts expected the data to move in the desired direction during the next decade.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2018 National Survey of Children's Health:

Numerator:
ON MOST WEEKDAYS, about how much time did this child spend in front of a TV, computer, cellphone or other electronic device watching programs, playing games, accessing the Internet or using social media? Do not include time spent doing schoolwork.
  1. Less than 1 hour
  2. 1 hour
  3. 2 hours
  4. 3 hours
  5. 4 or more hours

Methodology notes

Screen time was defined as time spent watching TV or videos, playing computer games, or using a computer outside of school. Screen time was estimated from responses to the question on time spent (1) in front of TV, computer, cellphone or other electronic device watching programs, playing games, accessing the Internet or using social media, doing things other than schoolwork. Response options were as follows: less than 1 hour, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, and 4 or more hours. None was counted as less than 1 hour.

Children and adolescents were categorized as meeting screen-time recommendations if the combined screen time was 1 hour or less per day. Missing values due to non-response are not included in the denominator when calculating prevalence estimates.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives in that objectives PA-8.2.1 used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to track children aged 2 to 5 years who viewed television, videos, and/or played video games for no more than 2 hours a day, and objective PA-8.3.1 used data from NHANES to track children aged 2 to 5 years who used a computer or played computer games for no more than 2 hours a day. This objective uses data from the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) to track children aged 2 to 5 years whose total screen time is no more than 1 hour per day.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2021 due to changes in 2018-2019 survey screen time questions the baseline has been revised from 26.2% to 43.9% and the target has been adjusted using the original target setting method from 30.7% to 48.9%.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.