Screen time: Is it linked to intake of cariogenic food in children?

Polls regularly highlight 'growing fears' about children being bullied on the internet.

This review of the association between screen-time behaviour and diet, including a potentially cariogenic diet, in children younger than 12 years old includes 19 cross-sectional studies. All of the included studies suggest a relationship.

[read the full story...]

Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

hal-gatewood-alntq-WvZZM-unsplash

David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

[read the full story...]

Review of apps and other digital technology to assess cognition in older adults

shutterstock_1456628195

Sarah Gregory writes her debut elf blog on a clinical review in the Evidence-Based Mental Health journal about digital technologies for the assessment of cognition.

[read the full story...]

How can digital technology help close the mortality gap for people with severe mental illness?

shutterstock_134284016

Lina Gega from the Closing the Gap Network explores a recent review of digital technology for health promotion, which looks at opportunities to address excess mortality in people living with severe mental illness.

[read the full story...]

Standards and principles for evaluating mental health apps

charles-deluvio-1208666-unsplash

Victoria Betton summarises and considers a recent opinion piece by John Torous and colleagues that heads towards a consensus around standards for mental health apps and digital mental health.

[read the full story...]

BlueIce app for managing self-harm: what do young people think?

justin-main-189770-unsplash

Bethan Davies shares her thoughts on a qualitative study of service users’ experience about the acceptability, use and safety of the BlueIce app for young people who self-harm.

[read the full story...]

The cost of persuasive design: digital media use and ADHD

play-again

Elvira Perez Vallejos and David Daley consider the findings of a recent cohort study in JAMA that looks into the association between digital media use and subsequent symptoms of ADHD in adolescents.

[read the full story...]

Smartphone apps for depression: do they work?

attentie-attentie-558964-unsplash (1)

Michelle Eskinazi and Clara Belessiotis write their debut elf blog on a recent meta-analysis of smartphone‐based mental health interventions for depression, which concludes that there is a possibly promising role for apps in the prevention and treatment of sub-clinical, mild and moderate depressive symptoms.

[read the full story...]

Can we build cities that aren’t traps for those at risk of mental ill-health?

lubo-minar-262506

Mark Brown blogs about the new Urban Mind study, which looks at how smartphones can measure the impact of nature on mental well-being in real time.

[read the full story...]

Staff views on digital self-management of severe mental illness

justin-main-189752

Laura Hemming presents a recent qualitative study of staff views on the use of the Internet and smartphones for digital self-management of severe mental health problems.

[read the full story...]