Assessing the longitudinal relationship between Peruvian children’s TV exposure and unhealthy food consumption

Abstract

Studies have shown that heavy television exposure is a risk factor for childhood overweight and obesity. This relationship is most typically attributed to the influence of food advertising. Despite this growing array of studies, one limitation is that these studies have focused almost exclusively on high-income countries. It is unclear whether such findings hold true in low-or middle-income countries. To address this gap, this study investigated the relationship between television exposure and unhealthy snack consumption (a risk factor for childhood overweight/obesity) in a sample of Peruvian children aged 6-13 (n = 265). Results indicate that television exposure is indeed cross-sectionally and longitudinally related with unhealthy snack consumption. But for children from high socioeconomic status families, this relationship is even more pronounced. These findings justify efforts to help parents manage their children's television viewing as well as efforts to regulate food advertising in Peru. To date, the claim that heavy TV viewing increases the probability of obesity among young children (Hastings et al., 2003; Institute of Medicine, 2006) has most typically been supported with research conducted in high-income countries (The World Bank, 2014a) such as the

Research on unhealthy food and beverages advertising targeting children: Systematic literature review and directions for future research

“…Here, frequent changes in the mode and nature of advertising campaigns created confusion among children (Rehman, 2018). Increased exposure to television content, leading to more exposure to ATC, increased the likelihood of unhealthy snacking (Busse and Piotrowski, 2017; Kashif et al, 2014). However, this relationship was not uniform because of the age-related differences in the perception of advertisements (Castonguay, 2019).…”

“…Out of the 28 studies primarily focusing on the modes of ATC, 10 examined the impact of ATC through digital modes on unhealthy eating. In addition, scholars have attempted to examine the various issues related to the mode and nature of advertising campaigns and their effect on the consumption behaviour of children, such as the relationship between increased exposure to television content and likelihood of unhealthy snacking, regulations to guard children against contact with unhealthy commercial messages (Hillier et al, 2009), the interaction between ATC and primary school food environment (Walton et al, 2009) and the use of lexical anglicism concerning television advertisements (Busse, 2018;Busse and Piotrowski, 2017;Castonguay, 2019;Luján-García and Isabel, 2015;Rehman, 2018). Regarding the impact of digital ATC on children's eating habits, scholarly research scanned a wide range of advertising modes, such as YouTube videos (Coates et al, 2019), digital games (Staiano and Calvert, 2012), Twitter handles promoting specific drinks (Lauricella and Koster, 2016), the impact of parental mediation (Newman and Oates, 2014), branding strategies in different digital marketing platforms (Confos and Davis, 2016;Smit et al, 2020) and the content of digital communication tools (An and Kang, 2014;Dias and Agante, 2011;Rifon et al, 2014;Thomson, 2010Thomson, , 2011.…”

“…,Eyal et al (2016),Busse and Piotrowski (2017),Busse (2018),Castonguay (2019),Rehman (2018),Coates et al (2019), andSmit et al (2020).…”

Gender representation in food and beverage print ads found in corner stores around schools in Peru and Guatemala

“…Food advertising is one of the factors contributing to the obesogenic environment and is considered an important policy area to halt the obesity epidemic (7,8). The food and beverage industry relies on several marketing strategies to in uence children and adolescents' preferences, including animated characters, celebrities, toy giveaways, and colors (Busse, 2016;Busse & Piotrowski, 2017;Chacon et al, 2013Chacon et al, , 2015Mazariegos et al, 2016).…”

Gender representation in food and beverage print advertisements found in corner stores around schools in Peru and Guatemala

“…Food advertising is one of the factors contributing to the obesogenic environment and is considered an important policy area to halt the obesity epidemic [7,8]. The food and beverage industry relies on several marketing strategies to influence children and adolescents' preferences, including animated characters, celebrities, toy giveaways, and colors [9][10][11][12][13].…”