BACKGROUND There is limited evidence in preschool children linking media use, such as television/video viewing and computer use, to obesity and adiposity. We tested three hypotheses in preschool children: 1) that watching > 2 hours of TV/videos daily is associated with obesity and adiposity, 2) that computer use is associated with obesity and adiposity, and 3) that > 2 hours of media use daily ...

UNLABELLED The rise of infant TV viewing began in the late 1990s and has become an increasingly common occurrence. Today, over 90% of children begin watching TV regularly before the age of 2 years in spite of recommendations to the contrary. This article reviews what is known about the effects of infant TV viewing on multiple domains of child development including language, cognition and attent...

Over four days, a researcher recorded the at-home activities of 30 families at 10-min intervals. Television viewing was the second most frequently observed activity for parents and the most frequently observed activity for children. Most television was watched in common areas of the home and in the presence of at least one other person, with the most common viewing configuration involving both ...

INTRODUCTION Obesity is a pandemic disease in Latin America. The purpose of this review was to analyze the studies exploring food advertising in TV conducted in Latin-American countries and in the USA geared to Hispanics. METHODS An electronic literature search was conducted in the MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, SCIELO, and CINAHL, databases and open access internet, of food advertising directed to ...

OBJECTIVES The home environment is thought to play a key role in early weight trajectories, although direct evidence is limited. There is general agreement that multiple factors exert small individual effects on weight-related outcomes, so use of composite measures could demonstrate stronger effects. This study therefore examined whether composite measures reflecting the 'obesogenic' home envir...

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an open-loop system that reinforces physical activity with TV watching to increase children's physical activity. Nonoverweight, sedentary boys and girls (8-12 y) were randomized to a group that received feedback of activity counts + reinforcement for physical activity by providing access to television (F+R, n = 20); or to feedback, no reinforcement (Fee...

BACKGROUND Parent-report and child perception of familial support for weight-related behaviors may not be congruent. This research explores whether parent-report or child perception is more strongly associated with child-reported physical activity and television (TV) use. METHODS Elementary school children (n = 73) participating in Ready. Set. ACTION!, a theater-based obesity prevention pilot...

BACKGROUND Evidence on the association between different screen behaviours and cardiometabolic biomarkers in children is limited. We examined the independent relationship of TV time and PC time with cardiometabolic biomarkers in Dutch 5-6 year old children. METHODS Cross-sectional analyses were conducted December 2012-March 2013 using data from a multi-ethnic cohort (the ABCD study, n = 1,961...

OBJECTIVE To assess the severity of protein energy malnutrition (PEM) in iodine deficient subjects and to assess the impact of PEM on thyroid size. METHODS 1002 subjects (530 school-aged children and 472 adults) were assessed for PEM by direct anthropometric measurements of height, weight, triceps skinfold (TSF) thickness, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and thigh circumference (TC), and d...

BACKGROUND Food advertising on television (TV) is well known to influence children's purchasing requests and models negative food habits in Western countries. Advertising of unhealthy foods is a contributor to the obesogenic environment that is a key driver of rising rates of childhood obesity. Children in developing countries are more at risk of being targeted by such advertising, as there is ...