Social inequalities in health‐related use of time in Australian adolescents

Abstract

Abstract Objective: Young people's socioeconomic position and time use behaviours – including physical activity, sedentary behaviours, social engagement, sleep and cognitive activities – have been associated with health outcomes. This study aimed to describe how time use varies with household income in a representative sample of 9–16 year old Australians. Methods: A random sample of 2,071 9–16 year old Australian children provided household income data and four days’ use‐of‐time data. Average daily minutes spent in various types of activities were calculated. Kruskal‐Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare time use across the income bands. Results: Higher income participants spent significantly more time playing sport (p<0.0001), including team sports (p=0.0005), and in cognitively demanding behaviours such as school routine (p<0.0001), doing homework (p<0.0001) and playing music (p=0.001) than their low‐income counterparts. Conversely, low‐income participants spent significantly more time watching television (p<0.001) and playing videogames (p<0.0002). There were no differences in sleep or social interaction. Screen time and school‐related activities were the major locations of differences. Conclusions: Time use differences in the areas of sport, school‐related and screen activities may be associated with various health and wellbeing outcomes, and thus be a source of health inequalities. Implications : Socioeconomic‐related time use behaviour differences could be used to develop specific interventions to address health inequalities via interventions addressing time use or income inequalities.

Keywords

• household income
• adolescent
• use‐of‐time
• screen time
• sleep
• physical activity