Current evidence suggests a potential detrimental effect of increased television viewing on children's health, including sensory processing issues. Therefore, this study examined the association between television viewing time and atypical sensory reactivity (SR) in children aged from three to seven years.

We evaluated data from the InProS cross-sectional study (n = 545). Daily television viewing was categorized into tertiles: ≤1.5, 1.5 to 2.5, and ≥2.5 hours. SR was evaluated using the Short Sensory Profile (SSP). Children with atypical SR were those with a global SSP score below 155, 30 for tactile sensitivity, 15 for taste/olfactory sensitivity, 13 for movement sensitivity, 27 for under-responsive/seeks sensation, 23 for auditory filtering, 26 for low energy/weak, and 19 for visual/auditory sensitivity. We used multiple Poisson regression models with robust variance to explore associations.

After adjusting for covariates, children who watched television 1.5 to 2.5 and ≥2.5 hours/day showed a higher prevalence of atypical global SR (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03 to 2.30; PR: 1.81; 95% CI: 1.19 to 2.76, respectively) and auditory filtering (PR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.96; PR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.83, respectively), compared with children who watched ≤1.5 hours/day. In addition, watching television ≥2.5 hours/day, compared with watching ≤1.5 hours/day, was associated with having atypical SR in movement sensitivity (PR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.06 to 2.83), under-responsive/seeks sensation (PR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02 to1.69), and low energy/weak (PR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.01 to 4.06).

The findings showed that television viewing ≥1.5 hours/day was associated with a higher prevalence of atypical SR in childhood. However, further longitudinal studies are required to confirm these results.