Television Exposure and Overweight Risk in Preschoolers

Abstract

Excessive television exposure is a risk factor for overweight in preschoolers independent of a number of potential confounders associated with the quality of the home environment.

Television viewing, computer use, obesity, and adiposity in US preschool children

“…In a large, population-based survey of children, aged 2–5 years, we report that a substantial proportion of preschoolers exceeded the AAP recommendations to limit media time to less than 2 hours daily. This finding is consistent with previous studies in preschoolers [ 10 , 12 , 13 ]. Preschoolers had a higher prevalence and greater exposure to television/video viewing than computer use as previously reported [ 10 ].…”

Obesity and Television Watching in Preschoolers in Greece: The GENESIS Study

“…In addition, the current findings suggest that the prevalence of obesity was significantly higher among children spending ≥2 h/day compared to those watching TV <2 h/day even after adjusting for other factors that may be associated with childhood obesity. These results are in agreement with those proposed from previous works conducted among preschoolers (17,19,20), although different potential confounders were used in these studies.…”

Sociodemographic and behavioural factors of adherence to the no-screen guideline for toddlers among parents from the French nationwide Elfe birth cohort

“…Our findings are consistent with previous studies identifying young maternal age [20] and low parental educational attainment [23,26,38] as correlates of greater screen time in young children and found no or weak associations with household income [5,39,40] and parental employment [5,26]. Concerning ethnicity and migration background, studies conducted in the United States have reported that screen time was greater for toddlers from Black and Hispanic households compared to toddlers from White households [23,41].…”