Contribution of Television Watching to Obesity - Research Paper Example

Contribution of Television Watching to Obesity Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Direct Contribution to Obesity 4 Carbonated Food Adverts 4 Indirect contribution to obesity 6 Reduced playtime 6 Clarification to Assumptions 7 Synthesis 8 Conclusion 10 References 12 Abstract This paper will analyze the effects of watching television on childhood and adolescent obesity. With increasing rates of obesity in the current society, it becomes necessary to establish the ways in which excessive time spent watching television. It is evident that exposure to too much food adverts on the television encourages the intake of high calorie foods which appear commonly on adverts. In addition, watching television influences development of obesity in children and adolescents in multiple ways. This probe is necessary because of the alarming increase of obesity among children and teenagers. An understanding of the contribution of viewing television to obesity will help in formulating strategies of regulating what children view and the number of hours they spent viewing programs. Introduction The prevalence of obesity is increasing at alarming rates. Statistics indicate that obesity has reached triple its rate 30 years ago in children. Data from America shows that the number of the 6-11 year old obese children went up from7percentage to 20%. For adolescents, obesity rates increased from 5% to 18% over the thirty years period. As evident, the last thirty years have presented alarming rates of obesity among teenagers and children. Being overweight denotes having more weight than the recommended healthy weight in relation to one’s height. Being overweight eventually leads to a condition whereby an individual possesses excessive levels of fat. The two conditions arise when the intake of calories is higher than calories utilization. An individual with these conditions presents a caloric imbalance (Boulos et al, 2012). These conditions present multiple health risks during youth or in advanced stages of life. Obesity increases the chances of having high cholesterol levels in the body, a situation that contributes to high blood pressure and cardiovascular health disorders and diseases. In addition, being obese or overweight increase the risk of prediabetes, a condition that presents increased glucose levels posing a greater risk of developing diabetes. Overweight and obesity conditions beginning at childhood or adolescence may progress until adulthood. This makes the adult at risk of developing multiple non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes type 2 (Boulos et al, 2012). Psychologists have concentrated on establishing the causes of obesity. Several studies indicate that the levels of television watching in terms of content and total time spent watching contribute to the development of obesity in children. Children spend an alarming amount of time watching television. Children gain the initial exposures to television before the age of one year. As children grow, the television becomes part of their lives. A journalist noted that children dedicate as much time to television as adults do to full-time jobs. The pattern of obesity increase and time spend watching television have a correlation as psychologists have observed. This paper will review research findings concerning the issue and draw conclusions on the issue. Literature Review Recent research highlighted interesting facts concerning the issue of watching television in children and teenagers. One of these is the fact that the television contributed to obesity in both direct and indirect ways. Children and adolescents spending a lot of time watching television were subject to developing obesity from the influence of the content of television advertisements and programs to their diet. Due to the habit of spending excessive time watching television, children found less time to indulge in active play (Boulos et al, 2012). Direct Contribution to Obesity Carbonated Food Adverts Companies design their marketing mix strategies with the power of children and teenagers to contribute to the market in mind. Majority of companies dealing with carbonated drinks, foodstuffs such as fast foods and sweetened products realize the purchasing power of children and adolescents. With such knowledge, they have designed different ways of advertising their products. They place visual and audio adverts as well as strategic product placements. Through this, children and adolescents are under constant persuasion to buy these types of foods. Analysis of the common food adverts indicates that most of the commonly featured foodstuffs are high-sugar, low nutrients, calorie-dense and less healthy. Moreover, companies are becoming increasingly subtle and opt to associate their products with specific program that target a certain age. Majority of food companies sponsor children programs exerting higher levels of influence (Boulos et al, 2012). The effect of such adverts is evident when children pester parent to buy for them products commonly advertised. Teenagers who have a direct purchasing power spend their savings on such unhealthy foods. In addition, they place a level of influence on their parents to buy commonly advertised-foods. There is increased food marketing in channels targeting the minority groups in the American society. Children spending a lot of time watching television are reportedly developing obesity at higher rates than their counter parts that spend limited time watching. The advertised foods never include fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that are healthy. Majority of the children prefer soda and other drinks to quench thirst instead of water, a habit they borrow from celebrities endorsing products. In addition, there is a common tendency of eating as children watch television. This habit can increase the level of calorie intake unnoticeably. Most of the times, children and teenagers will watch as they snack. After watching, they are likely to eat heavier meals. Children spending a lot of time watching television do not indulge in active play. Play forms part of exercise in children that helps them burn extra calories and keeps them healthy. Excessive time on the television translates to little time for outdoor activities and this increases their chances of adiposity (Boulos et al, 2012). Moreover, watching television exposes individuals to food references and the highlight of food behavior that trigger the desire for food. On a different note, the depiction of celebrities and movie characters depict all lean people and the attractiveness thought to come with leanness triggers dissatisfaction in overweight individuals. This dissatisfaction acts an indirect trigger to an increased calorie intake. In the end, these people do not become leaner but become obese. Reality shows that seek to reward people with the ability to lose weight depict the issue of obesity with less seriousness. These programs present unrealistic ways of losing weight. Cooking programs aired on most of the channels do not emphasized on the value of cooking healthy food. Such programs have the potential to trigger people to try the recipes and this increases consumption of more calorie-intense products. In addition, news reports do not enlighten people on the contribution of social factors to the increasing cases of obesity (Boulos et al, 2012). Indirect contribution to obesity Reduced playtime Previous literature review by Caroli et al (2004) provided further support to these finding. From the review of existing literature, it became evident that spending time watching television reduced the time children and young people could indulge in other activities increasing obesity rates. As children spend more time watching television, obesity rates increase as research indicated. The increased time spend watching the television exposed children and adolescents to a varied level of unhealthy food triggers. Research in the years preceding Caroli et al’s work indicated an increase in food advertisements in most of the channels. These adverts portray seemingly healthy food that is unhealthy in real sensed prompting children and youths to prefer them to healthy foods. This preference increases the rate of obesity in society. In addition, the literature reviewed ascertained that the depiction of thinner television characters as more attractive that obese individuals led to a case of isolation. The isolation resulted because obese people often felt unappreciated by the society. The resulting isolation only worsened the situation. A previous longitudinal approach into the contribution of watching television to childhood obesity confirmed that television viewing has effects on the body mass indices in children from the age of 3 years to 15 years (Hancox and Houlton, 2006). The cohort under study registered different hours of viewing television at different ages. From this cohort, it became evident that girls who spend a lot of time watching television were likely to register higher increase in body mass indices than boys were. However, this did not underestimate the effect of excessive television watching on boys. Long hours spend watching television translated to higher chances of obesity. The difference was that the prevalence was higher in girls although boys registered figures of significance. The conclusion drawn indicated that television watching contributed significantly to the development of obesity. This significance remained evident after regression of other contributing factors. Clarification to Assumptions An extensive research revealed additional information that clarifies the assumption made concerning the exposure of children to adverts (Desroshers and Holt, 2007). Over the years, majority of the probes into the question of how much television watching contributed to development of obesity worked from estimates of the total time children and adolescents spend viewing television. Since approximations of the total exposure to food adverts relied on the estimates, the data produced was not very reliable. However, Holt and Desrochers (2007) cleared the assumptions by providing detailed calculations and accurate figures on the issue. The accurate data proves to be more reliable because the research took into consideration of multiple factors. One of the factors was the analysis of the audience of different programs. A calculation of the total percentage of food adverts available followed. A thorough analysis of children programs and the adverts aired during such programs also helped in understanding the implication of the data. According to the extensive calculations, it became evident that the number of hours that children receive exposure to food advertisements has reduced in recent times. Although the number of food advertisements is increasing with time, children seem to have less time of exposure to these adverts. A new aspect came out in this research concerning the contribution of non-food related adverts to obesity. Although previous researches had not identified this, it is possible that these adverts contribute towards the development of obesity by advocating for sedentary activities that do not burn many calories. Since there are several factors that contribute to obesity, this argument is correct. Zimmerman and Bell (2010) established that the viewing of food adverts on the television resulted to increased obesity cases. Majority of previous researches suggested that the total time spend watching television counted in contributing to obesity. However, findings from this research indicated that only the total time spend watching adverts counted. From the body mass indices of the children under study, it became obvious that viewing adverts on television contribute to an increase in the BMIs. Synthesis Boulos et al (2012) provides a compilation of the available literature concerning the contribution of watching television to the increasing obesity rates. These effects lie in two different categories. Television watching affects children directly through the adverts children see. In addition, children face the temptation of spending a lot of time on the television and lack time for more involving exercise that would help them stay healthy. Other indirect triggers of food come indirectly through food references in other programs. In addition, the depiction of obese people in most programs affects obese people negatively. Caroli et la (2004), highlighted the same findings from an earlier literature review. Boulos et al (2012) then appears in support of earlier findings. This indicates that different psychologists have been probing into the issue to identify the any new findings. Hancox and Foulton (2010) supported these findings with confirmation of the contribution of watching television to obesity level in children from a cohort study. On the other hand, Zimmerman and Bell (2010), clarify the findings of Boulos et al and Carali et al. these studies concentrated on the effects of watching television to childhood obesity. Zimmerman and Bell (2010) highlight that it is only the time that children spend watching adverts that counts. This finding is more specific and addresses the issue from an objective point of view. This is the case because children may watch television for long hours but have limited exposure to food adverts. This makes the approach of considering the amount of time children spend watching adverts more realistic. Holt and Desrochers (2007) introduced a new approach that backs Zimmerman and Bell’s conclusion that what counted in the significance of watching television was the total time spend on adverts. According to them, an integrated calculation of the total exposure of food adverts to children was more realistic. This presents the most accurate of the analysis of the total food adverts exposed to children. In addition, a new idea implying that other adverts contribute to the development of obesity. Conclusion It is evident that television contributes significantly to the development of obesity in children and adolescents. However, the effect depends on several factors. One of the leading factors is the amount of time children and teenagers spend watching the television. Children spending a long time are likely to develop obesity because of the influences explained above. The second factor is the increasing rate of food adverts in majority of television channels. The more companies produce the adverts, the higher the likelihood of potential influence on children and adolescents. In addition, understanding the probability of children getting exposure to television adverts determines the level of influence. Children and adults watch programs designated for their ages in higher numbers and the studies of effects should focus on the number of adverts during these programs. However, it is evident that television watching has numerous effects on the diet either directly or indirectly. From the findings elaborated above, watching television is one of the factors that can explain the increase in obesity among children and adolescents at alarming rates. The situation needs action from parents, government institutions, and companies. The media has a responsibility of coming up with new ways of portraying obesity as an unhealthy condition and advising the public on ways of reducing its prevalence. Companies should take a step towards self-regulation with the interest of the welfare of children and adolescents. They should concentrate on making healthier foods and limit their advertisement target to children and adolescents. The government should enact regulatory measures for company’s advertisement. Parents should come up with measures of discouraging excessive television watching as well as introducing healthy diet to their children. References Boulos et al. (2012). ObesiTV: How television is influencing the obesity epidemic. Physiology and Behavior, 107(2012), 146-153. Caroli et al. (2004). Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. International Journal of Obesity, 28(2004), 104-108. Desrochers, M., and Holt, J. (2007). Child’s exposure to television advertising: implication for childhood obesity. American Marketing Association, 26(2), 182-201. Hancox, R., and Poulton, R. (2006). Watching television is associated wit childhood obesity: but is it clinically important? International Journal of Obesity, 30(2006), 171-175. Zimmerman, F., and Bell, F. (2010). Asociations of television conent type and obesity in children. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 334-340. Read More