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With the school for the summer, kids may be using more mobile devices than usual, but the health risks may not be worth it.
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One study suggests that reduced screen time and the right amount of sleep and physical activity are linked to improvements in cogeneration in children.

the An observational study analyzed data from a larger study funded by the National Institutes of Health, covering 4,500 children aged 8 to 11 years.

The researchers then compared the time spent on screens, sleeping and doing physical activity with the Canadian Movement Guidelines 24 hours a day, created by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. .

The study associates children who adhere to the guidelines – which include 9 to 11 hours of sleep, at least an hour of physical activity and less than two hours on screens – with improvements in cognition.

The researchers found that even just limiting screen time or getting enough sleep had the strongest connections for better cognition.

"The data suggest that good sleep and good physical activity are associated with improved academic performance, while physical activity is also related to improved reaction time, attention , memory and inhibition, "says Dr. Jeremy Walsh, lead author of the Research Institute study in Ottawa, Canada, in a statement.

The study was published last week in the newspaper "The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health".

The study found that only 1 in 20 children in the United States met all three criteria, while almost one in three did not.

Walsh said that although children who spent more than two hours in front of screens were linked to weaker cognition, he warned that additional research was needed to study the impacts of different forms of screen time, such as educational and entertainment experiences.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @ brettmolina23.

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