CHILDREN'S USE OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA IN EARLY CHILDHOOD - AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of interactive media (tablets and smartphones) use by children aged two to four years old, as well as to characterize this use, and investigate habits, practices, parents' participation and opinion about their child's interactive media use.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with 244 parents or legal guardians of children enrolled in daycare centers in a small Brazilian municipality was conducted. A questionnaire based on interactive media use and related habits were applied, and economic level was assessed. Children were divided into three different groups according to media use: Group 1 did not use (n=81); Group 2 uses up to 45 min/day (n=83) and Group 3 uses more than 45 min/day (n=80). Then, they were compared with regard to the sociodemographic variables and media use by the Chi-square test and Student's t-test.

Results: The prevalence of interactive media use was 67.2%, with a mean time of use of 69.2 minutes/day (confidence interval of 95% - 95%CI 57.1-81.2). The activities most performed were watching videos (55%), listening to music (33%) and playing games (28%). Most parents reported allowing media use in order to stimulate their child's development (58.4%), accompanying them during use (75.2%), and limiting media time (86.4%).

Conclusions: We observed high interactive media use prevalence. The predominant way of using these devices was marked by parent-child participation. Most parents reported believing in the benefits of interactive media. Passive activities were more frequent, with restricted time of use.