Association of obesity with physical activity, television programs and other forms of video viewing among children in Mexico City

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of physical activity, television program viewing and other forms of video viewing with the prevalence of obesity among school children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS: 712 children, 9 ± 16 y old, from a low-and a middle-income town in the Mexico City area. MEASUREMENTS: Children completed a self administered questionnaire to assess time spent in physical activity and television viewing, and diet. Height weight and triceps skinfolds were measured. The outcome variable was obesity, and the covariates were hours of television programs and other video viewing, physical activity, energy intake, percentage of energy from fat, town of location of school, age, gender and perception of mother's weight status. RESULTS: Among 461 children with complete information, 24% were classi®ed as obese. Children reported an average of 4.1 AE 2.2 had watching television (2.4 AE 1.5 had for TV programs and 1.7 AE 1.5 had for video cassette recorder (VCR) or videogames), and 1.8 AE 1.3 had in moderate and vigorous physical activities. Odds ratios (OR) of obesity were 12% higher for each hour of television program viewing per day (OR 1.12, 95% con®dence interval (CI) 1.02, ± 1.22), and 10% lower for each hour of moderateavigorous physical activity per day (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83 ± 0:98), controlling for age, gender, town and perception of mother's weight status. Children in the middle-income town had higher adjusted odds of obesity (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.47 ± 4.54). CONCLUSION: Physical activity and television viewing, but not VCRavideogames use, were related to obesity prevalence in Mexican children 9 ± 16 y old.

Child overweight in France and its relationship with physical activity, sedentary behaviour and socioeconomic status

“…This result is consistent with a growing body of evidence that, among children and adolescents, inactivity (particularly watching TV) is associated with body fatness in cross-sectional (Andersen et al, 1998;Hernandez et al, 1999;Tremblay and Willms, 2003), longitudinal (Maffeis et al, 1998;Berkey et al, 2000) and intervention studies Robinson, 1999). Obesity in children has even been reported to correlate in a dosedependent manner with baseline daily duration of television viewing in longitudinal observations (Dietz and Gortmaker, 1985;Gortmaker et al, 1996), suggesting a cause-effect relationship.…”

“…The absence of a significant relationship between physical activity and OW found in the preadolescent and adolescent groups is only partially shared in the literature. Crosssectional and longitudinal studies are roughly divided between finding no effect (McMurray et al, 1995;Goran et al, 1997;Maffeis et al, 1998;Kimm et al, 2001), or a protective effect of activity (Moore et al, 1995;Hernandez et al, 1999;Berkey et al, 2000;O'Loughlin et al, 2000;Tremblay and Willms, 2003;Janssen et al, 2005).…”

Efficacy of exercise for treating overweight in children and adolescents: a systematic review

“…76 Low levels of physical activity and greater amounts of sedentary pursuits, in particular television viewing (43 h/ days), during childhood and/or adolescence is predictive of greater future adiposity and or overweight. [77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84] Thus, the rationale for prescribing exercise as an adjunct to dietary restriction is compelling given its potential to reduce overweight-related comorbidity and the hazard associated with dietary restriction alone.…”

Children with a TV in their bedroom at higher risk for being overweight

“…2 Studies linking the convergence of these two trends have demonstrated that high levels of TV use are significantly associated with child overweight. [3][4][5][6] The average American household with children aged 8-18 years has three TV sets, and 68% of children have a TV in their own bedroom. 2 Averaging at least 3 h a day, child media exposure to TV exceeds other media, including exposure to videos/DVDs/movies, print media, audio media, computers and video games.…”

“…2 High amounts of TV use have been associated with many negative outcomes, including poor scholastic performance, 7,8 sleep deprivation, 9,10 child requests for advertised foods, 11 eating fewer fruits and vegetables and more pizza/snack food/soda, 12 greater consumption of high-fat foods 13 and higher BMI. [4][5][6]14 Overweight is associated with many diseases, 1,[15][16][17] and the greater the degree of overweight as a child, the greater the likelihood that child will be overweight as an adult. 18,19 Extensive research addressing the intersection of TV use and child overweight has included known risk factors for child overweight, such as sociodemographics (e.g., gender, ethnicity, household income, parent education), 20,21 dietary intake (amounts and types of foods eaten), 13 presence of TV at meals, 12 perception of parental weight status 5,20 and measures of physical activity.…”