Associations Between Migration Background and Media and Information Behavior in Primary School Children.

Background: Children with migration background and from low socio-economic status are at higher risk for overweight. To determine appropriate media channels to possibly reach children with targeted health information, it has to be considered that the media and information behavior of children has changed during the last decades.

Objective: We examined the media and information behavior of children in low socio-economic districts, focusing on those with migration background.

Methods: Fourteen 3 grade classes (n=250 children, 68.0% with migration background) completed a questionnaire regarding their media consumption, which was based on existing validated surveys.

Results: ≥ 50% of the children watched TV and around 40% used both mobile phones and computers/tablets/internet for ≥1 h/day. Books were the most popular analogue media (61.6% of children), whereas magazines/newspapers and radio (18.4 and 16.0% of children, respectively) were used less frequently. Furthermore, they regularly used internet, TV and their teachers (63.0, 48.8 and 44.8% of children, respectively) as information source. Especially children with compared to those without migration background less likely used the radio (P=0.0002) and their family as information source (P=0.0017).

Conclusions: Children attending 3 grade class, especially with migration background, can be addressed through digital media rather than the radio. This may help to sustainably support children outside school with targeted health information.