Childhood TV Viewing Harms Health
July 16, 2004(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Parents who let their children watch more than two hours of television a day may be setting them up for health problems in adulthood.
That’s the main message from a new study conducted in New Zealand and published in this week’s The Lancet. Researchers attribute between 15 percent and 17 percent of overweight, smoking, raised cholesterol, and poor fitness among 26-year-olds to excessive TV viewing during childhood.
The study followed about 1,000 kids who were born in 1972 and 1973. When the children were small, parents were asked to report on their TV viewing habits. As they got older, the kids themselves told researchers how much television they were watching.
By the end of the study, researchers were able to link greater viewing to an increased chance the young adults would be overweight, have higher cholesterol levels, smoke, and be less likely to participate in physical activity. The findings held true even after they were adjusted to take other factors, such as parental smoking and childhood obesity, into account.
The authors conclude, “Our results suggest that excessive television viewing in young people is likely to have far-reaching consequences for adult health.” They call for parents to adhere to recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that suggest parents limit TV watching to one to two hours per day. In fact, note the investigators, “Less than one hour a day would be even better.”
In an accompanying commentary, Harvard physician David Ludwig, M.D., agrees. “Ultimately, parents must reclaim from television the responsibility for educating and entertaining their young children.”
SOURCE: The Lancet, 2004;364:257-262, 226
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.