Time Spent on the Internet and Adolescent Blood Pressure

TIME SPENT ON THE INTERNET AND
ADOLESCENT BLOOD PRESSURE
Cassidy-Bushrow, A. E., Johnson, D. A., Peters, R. M., Burmeister, C., & Joseph, C. L. (2015). Time spent on
the internet and adolescent blood pressure. The Journal of School Nursing, 31(5), 374-384.

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Hypertension might start in childhood. Children having high blood pressure can be at higher risk
for developing hypertension just like in adults. Recent studies have suggested that the childhood
blood pressure levels and its prevalence in childhood and adolescence are getting increased.
This rise is due to obesity and increased sodium intake. Psychological, psychosocial and psycho-
cultural factors are seen as the major determinants of adolescent rise of blood pressure beyond
normal or physiologically safe levels.

RESEARCH PROBLEM
Internet usage is associated with depression, obesity in adolescents after adjustment of the
internet and other media causes.
There has been reports that the time spent on Internet is a part or constituent of sedentary
behavior. This time included the summation of television and internet hours time and is related to
positive associations with systolic BP blood pressure. Researches studying the Blood pressure-
internet relationship reported mixed results. However, little researches were undertaken to study
the relationship of internet usage particularly with rise of blood pressure in adolescents.

AIM OF THE STUDY
The study aims to examine an association between the time spent on Internet and the high Blood pressure
in diverse racial cross-sectional adolescents sample from United States.
From the study’s Abstract – “We examined the association between Internet use and elevated BP in a
racially diverse cross-sectional sample of 331 healthy adolescents (ages 14–17 years). Heavy Internet
use was defined as ≥2 hr/day, moderate use as <2 hr/day and ≥5 days/week, and light use as <2 hr/day
and ≤4 days/week. Elevated BP was defined as systolic or diastolic BP ≥90th percentile. Heavy
Internet users had statistically significantly higher odds of elevated BP compared to light Internet
users. School nurses can play an important role in preventing high BP through assessment of BP and
other health behaviors including Internet use, and health teaching to individuals, student groups,
faculty, and parents to increase awareness of the relationship between Internet use and health.”
This research is chosen because it focuses on its aim across various ethnic groups and scores high on
reliability and validity.