Around 80% of Sri Lankan children surveyed do not brush their teeth twice a day, according to findings presented by the Health Promotion Bureau, which also recorded high rates of excess screen use, inadequate sleep and limited involvement by fathers.
The figures come from a study conducted jointly by the Health Promotion Bureau, the Family Health Bureau, the University of Colombo and UNICEF, Hiru News reported.
What the survey found
- 80% of children surveyed do not brush their teeth twice a day.
- More than 64% of children under the age of five spend more time on mobile phones, tablets, computers and similar devices than the study’s recommended duration.
- Around 43% of those children were fed while using a digital device.
- Around 32% of children were not getting what the study identified as an adequate amount of daily sleep.
- Around 47% of fathers were found to have limited close engagement with their children.
The study drew on children and families, preschool teachers and 55 childcare centres across four provinces.
The thresholds, the sample and the provinces
A later Daily Mirror report on a media briefing given by Dr Anil Jasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, supplies the measurements the first account left out:
- The survey covered around 1,100 children, their parents and preschool teachers.
- The four provinces are Southern, Western, Central and Northern.
- The 64% figure refers to children spending more than 30 minutes a day on screens.
- The 32% figure refers to children sleeping less than the recommended 10 to 11 hours a day.
On the thresholds themselves, the Daily Mirror cites Dr Enoka Wickramasinghe: World Health Organisation guidance is that children under two should not be exposed to screens at all, and that for children aged two to five screen time should not exceed 60 minutes a day and is preferably limited to 30 to 45 minutes. The survey’s 30-minute cut-off is therefore stricter than the WHO ceiling for that age group, which is why a figure as high as 64% does not by itself mean two-thirds of preschoolers exceed WHO limits.
What the briefing said about the effects
Dr Wickramasinghe said passive screen use matters most in the first few years, a period of rapid brain growth. “When a child is not stimulated through the five senses, neuronal connections will not be developed in the brain,” she said, listing cognitive, language, motor, emotional and social development as areas that depend on active interaction.
She said psychologists and psychiatrists had raised concerns about language and behaviour: “Language abilities can be poor, and language development can be reduced remarkably. There can also be behaviour problems, such as aggressive behaviour.” She stated explicitly that screen use does not cause autism, while noting that heavy screen users may get fewer chances to build social skills.
She also linked prolonged sitting in front of screens to sedentary behaviour, a raised risk of overweight and obesity and later non-communicable disease including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and identified eye problems as a further concern.
The response
Authorities are implementing the STEP-UP Early Childhood Development Programme, which the Health Promotion Bureau describes as a 2026 national programme to promote healthy behaviours in early childhood. It includes work to strengthen health-promotion practices in preschools and to create healthier environments for children.
The programme is being tied to National Children’s Week, observed in Sri Lanka from 25 September to 1 October, with activities centred on children’s health, protection and wellbeing.
The Daily Mirror describes the response differently, saying the survey has become the baseline for a new social and behaviour change communication programme under the Health Promotion Bureau’s National Preschool Health Promotion Programme, targeting eight key health areas. The two outlets name different programmes; neither says how the two relate, and we have not been able to establish whether they are the same initiative under two names.
Why the screen findings carry weight
The 43% figure — children fed while looking at a screen — is the one that connects the survey’s separate strands. Feeding at a screen is associated with children eating without registering fullness, and it displaces the back-and-forth between adult and child that early language development depends on. Read alongside the finding on fathers’ engagement, the survey is describing a shift in how time with young children is being spent, not simply a dental hygiene problem.
What is not stated
Neither report names the survey formally, gives the period it covers or provides a margin of error or publication reference. The sample size, the provinces and the screen-time and sleep thresholds — all missing from the first account — have since been supplied by the Daily Mirror and are set out above.
Still unstated: how “limited close engagement” by fathers was measured, and how the 80% oral-health figure was defined. The 80% brushing figure and the 47% figure on fathers appear only in Hiru’s report; the sample size, provinces and thresholds appear only in the Daily Mirror’s. Neither outlet carries the other’s detail, so the two accounts are complementary rather than overlapping, and the figures have not been checked against the underlying study.
