Psychometric properties of screen time questionnaire in children

Introduction: Nowadays, the long-term use of screens leads to physical, cognitive, and behavioral injuries in children. Aim: The present study was conducted to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the screen-time questionnaire in children. Method: The present is applied in terms of objective and developmental in terms of methodology. The statistical population of the study comprised 90 children aged 8-12 years in Mashhad in 2021-2022 who were selected based on availability sampling method. The research tools included the Screen-time Questionnaire (2019) and Conners’ Questionnaire (1999). Test-retest reliability was used to measure the reliability of screen time questionnaire in children using the intra-class correlation coefficient and standard error of measurement. Moreover, the correlation between the scores of the components of the screen-time scale and the parental version of the Conners’ questionnaire was checked to verify the convergent validity. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient values for the components of children’s screen-time questionnaire on normal days of the week were between 0.80-0.92, weeknights between 0.79-0.90, and weekends between 0.78-0.85, while the use of the screen in the background was between 0.73-0.80. All these values indicated high reliability or favorable retest reliability of the screen-time questionnaire components in children. Furthermore, the results of convergent validity suggested that there is a positive and significant relationship between the components of the screen-time questionnaire and the lack of attention component at 0.01 level. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that the screen-time questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool for the quantitative evaluation of the use of electronic-screen devices in Iranian children. Therefore, this tool can be used for research and clinical applications in the field of cognitive disorders related to children

The preconditioning effect of different exercise training modes on middle cerebral artery occlusion induced-behavioral deficit in senescent rats

Introduction: Brain abilities decrease after brain stroke in elderly. The neuroprotective effect of exercise training has been proved in clinical trials and animal experiment. Nevertheless, it is not still clear what kind of exercise has greater protective effect. The present study aimed at investigating pre-conditioning effect of endurance, resistance, and concurrent training on learning ability, anxiety, and spatial memory in aged rats following stroke strength with middle cerebral artery occlusion. Method: We used 50 male Wistar rats (age = 24 months) that were assigned randomly in five groups; 1: sham group, 2: Control group 3: Endurance training 4: Resistance training, and 5: concurrent training. The exercise training groups received training for four weeks. Following training, middle cerebral artery occlusion was applied to induce cerebral ischemia. Using the elevated plus maze, shuttle box test, and Morris water maze, neurocognitive functions were tested in the sample rats. Results: It was found that resistance training did not affect spatial memory in the acquisition phase, while concurrent training and endurance training enhanced spatial memory in the acquisition phase. On the contrary, spatial memory was improved by resistance training in the retention phase, while concurrent and endurance exercises did not affect spatial memory in the retention phase. Passive avoidance learning ability at acquisition phase was more in resistance group compared to the endurance and concurrent training in shuttle box test, but in retention phase was similar between training groups. Unlike endurance and concurrent training, resistance training reduced anxiety in senescent rats. Conclusion: All three exercise types alleviated aversive learning and memory impairment induced by stroke in senescent rats. Notably, the resistance training showed a greater protective effect compared to the other two training methods