How children choose to spend their time may be associated with the quality of life they have as adults, with a new study showing 'potterers' are at greatest risk of poor health.
An Australian study by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) study surveyed over 1400 participants aged 11 and 12.
Participants were asked to fill out daily diaries detailing their use of time in five-minute increments across two 24-hour periods.
Their overall quality of life, psychological health and physical health were then measured.
Based on the information, four distinct types of children emerged.
They were defined as: Studious Actives - highest school-related time, low screen time; Techno Actives - highest physical activity, lowest school-related time; Stay-home Screenies - highest screen time, mainly stay at home; and Potterers - low physical activity, moderate screen time.
Studious Actives were the healthiest group, while Potterers had the poorest scores across all three measures of health-related quality of life.
The MCRI's Dr Monica Wong says promoting healthy time-use patterns for children may lead to better health in later life.
"We know that both lifestyle and health trajectories are well established by adolescence and they have lifetime consequences. However, until now we didn't know whether overall time-use patterns are already associated with health-related quality of life as young as age 11-12 years," Dr Wong said.
According to the study results, published in The American Academy of Pediatrics, some children in the Potterers category reported that they would regularly play video games for eight hours straight.
Concerningly, they couldn't recall if they had eaten lunch or gone to the toilet during that period, said senior author Professor Melissa Wake.
"The Potterers' result raises the question as to whether they play video games because they're less happy or the reverse - do the excessive videos actually decrease their quality of life," Prof Wake said.
