Role of Television in Childhood Obesity - Assignment Example

Role of Television in Childhood Obesity Childhood obesity is a health concern of great magnitude. It is occurring in epidemic proportions is the world. Obesity in a child is defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) above 95th percentile for age and gender and over weight is defined as BMI between 85th and 95th percentile (Noller, 2005). Childhood obesity and overweight are a matter of concern because of the potential health problems they are associated with like hypertension, type-2 diabetes, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, trouble sleeping and depression. It has been estimated that 80% overweight adolescents continue to be obese in adulthood. Added to these problems, childhood obesity imposes huge health care costs on the nation (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). Childhood obesity and overweight also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood (Eisenmann, 2002). Potential causes of childhood obesity include viewing television for many hours a day, reduction in physical education classes in the schools, reduction in the after-school athletic programmes, increase in the availability of binge foods like sodas and snacks in the school cafeteria, vast growth in the number of fast food centers and outlets, super-sized food proportions in the restaurants and increased availability of high-calorie and high fat foods in the grocery shops (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). Watching television in childhood and adolescence has infact been linked to adverse health factors like obesity, smoking, and raised cholesterol in adulthood. Hancoux et al (2004) studied the association between child and adolescent television viewing and adult health in a longitudinal study and reported that there does exist a relationship between the two. Although, television viewing had no effect on blood pressure. Their study also suggested that time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence might even exceed time spent in school. Various studies have predicted that physical activity at age 15 years was inversely correlated with adolescent television which infact predicted adult cardio-respiratory fitness. The association between television viewing and childhood obesity came into light because explosion in media targeted to children and childhood obesity occurred during the same period. Children and adolescents spend a considerable part of their life watching television. Children spend as much as five and half hours a day in front of television equivalent to a full-time job. The average child or adolescent watches an average of nearly 3 hours of television per day (Nielsen Media Research data, cited in Committee on Public Education, 2001). To facilitate this, 32% of 2- to 7-year-olds and 65% of 8- to 18-year olds have television sets in their bedrooms (Committee on Public Education, 2001). It is not only television that has attracted children, but other forms of media like computers, videogames and videos have also attracted children. Children tend to get glued to the media because of the interesting programmes which attract them. Though TV viewing can have its own potential benefits, many negative effects can result like violence and aggressive behavior, sexuality, poor academic performance, body concept and self image, substance abuse, dieting and obesity (Committee on Public Education, 2001). The media also advertises and promotes foods like sodas, snacks and candies. This can contribute to unhealthy food choices and weight gain (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). Environmental factors frequently discourage physical activity and promote over eating, thus leading to childhood obesity. Due to increased television watching, the amount of time spent in other activities like playing is curtailed leading to decreased physical activity. Reduced physical activity results in a reduction in total energy expenditure, thus creating a positive energy balance. Obesity occurs as a result from an energy imbalance wherein caloric consumption exceeds energy expenditure. Also, obesity itself increases TV viewing (Grund et al, 2000). Increased adiposity occurs as a result of increased percent calories consumed from fat. Physical activity contributes to energy expenditure and prevents adiposity. So, sedentary life style resulting in decreased physical activity can lead to adiposity and obesity (Jago et al, 2001). The most studied form of sedentary behavior is watching TV. Viewing TV is associated with consumption of binge diet like increased consumption of soda, fried foods and snacks. Jago et al (2001) reported in their study that reducing TV viewing and increased physical activity can bring down obesity. Grund et al (2000) studied the relationships between TV viewing and body composition energy expenditure, physical activity, fitness and nutrition habits in prepubertal children. They concluded that there is a positive relationship between TV viewing and fatness. They also opined that increased TV viewing does not reflect reduced 24-hour energy expenditure, but increased TV consumption is associated with a low socioeconomic status. Hernandez et al (1999) studied the association of physical activity, television program viewing and other forms of video viewing with the prevalence of obesity among school children. They reported that decreased physical activity and television viewing were related to obesity prevalence. They also inferred that videogames were not associated with obesity prevalence. Eisenmann et al (2002) also studied similar aspects and reported that increased levels of physical activity are associated with a lower BMI and less TV watching. They also pronounced the relationship between TV watching and weight status There has been enough research to relate television watching to increased prevalence of childhood obesity. The first study was by Dietz and Gortmaker in 1985 (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). They reported that there was significant association between the amount of time spent by the children in watching television and obesity (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). They also inferred that among 12 to 17 year olds, the prevalence of obesity increased by 2% for each additional hour spent in front of television. It has been estimated that 29% of obesity cases can be prevented by reducing television viewing to less than an hour a day (The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, 2004). There after many longitudinal and cross-sectional studies have been done to evaluate the effect of excessive TV viewing and childhood obesity. Many studies have infact proved the effect of media on obesity. However, it is difficult to measure television viewing and physical activity to establish a causal relationship between television viewing and childhood obesity. This is because, to establish a cause-effect relationship, television viewing should have preceded over weight (Robinson, 1998). Hence there is a need for experimental studies to actually determine the causal- effect relationship. There is no definite information as to how much television should a child or adolescent should watch. However, studies show that children and adolescents who watched 1 h or less a day were the healthiest (Hancoux et al, 2004). The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit their child’s viewing to 2 h per day (Hancoux et al, 2004). While increased TV viewing has been attributed to obesity in children, various studies have also described that reducing TV viewing can infact prevent obesity. Robinson (1999) reduced television, videotape and videogames use in children and assessed the changes in adiposity, physical activity and dietary intake. He inferred that reducing media viewing is a promising population based approach to prevent childhood obesity. Behavioral interventions aimed at reducing TV viewing have been effective in producing short- and long-term weight loss in obese children. The approaches used by these interventions are information dissemination and restricted TV accessibility. Some other forms of interventions to reduce obesity include increasing activity by using contingent television. For example, making a child increase pedaling on a cycle ergometer to obtain access to contingent TV or by making movie viewing and video game playing contingent on pedaling a cycle ergometer. In a study by Faith et al (2001), they reported that introduction of the contingent TV significantly increased physical activity and reduced TV viewing, thus reducing the weight of the child. Thus it is worth mentioning that though there are many causes for childhood obesity, the most common and preventable cause is increased media viewing. References Committee on Public Education. (2001). Children, Adolescents, and Television. Pediatrics, 107, p.423-426. Eisenmann, J.C., Bartee, R.T., & Wang, M.Q. (2002). Physical Activity, TV Viewing, and Weight in U.S. Youth: 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Obesity Research, 10(5), p.379-385 Faith, M.S., Berman, N., Heo, M., et al. (2001). Effects of Contingent Television on Physical Activity and Television Viewing in Obese Children, Pediatrics, 107, p. 1043-1048. Grund, A., Krause, H., Siewers, M., Rieckert, H., & Muller, M.J. (2000). Is TV viewing an index of physical activity and fitness in overweight and normal weight children? Public Health Nutrition, 4 (6), p. 1245-1251. Hancox, R.J., Milne, B.J., & Poulton, R. (2004). Association between child and adolescent television viewing and adult health: a longitudinal birth cohort study. Lancet, 364, 257-262. Hernanadez, B., Gortmaker, S.L., Colditz, G.A. (1999). International Journal of Obesity, 23, 845-854 Jago, R., Baranowski, T., Baranowski, J.C., Thompson, D., & Greaves, K.A. (2005). BMI from 3–6 y of age is predicted by TV viewing and physical activity, not diet. International Journal of Obesity, 29, p.557–564. Noller, D.T. & Paulk, D. (2005). Childhood Obesity. JAAPA, 18(12), 32 to 38. Robinson, T.N. (1998). Does Television cause Childhood Obesity? JAMA, 279 (12), 959- 960. Robinson, T.N. (1999). The Journal of American Medical Association, 282 (16), 1561- 1567. The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity. (2004). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 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