Q&A with Lead Author of October's Paper of the Month on TV watching and food consumption

The October paper of the month investigated the relationship between television viewing and energy consumption in children. The following Q&A is with lead, Dr Michael M Borghese from Queen’s University, Canada Why did you become interested in the impact of television on childhood obesity? I really became interested in the impact of television on childhood obesity when I learned just how much TV kids are watching, and how much time kids now spend using media in general. Children today spend more than 7 hours each day using screen-based media – this is more time than they spend in school each day. In Canada, only about one-quarter of children meet the national guideline for screen-based sedentary behaviour, which is <2 hours/day. While the way in which we use media is changing, TV viewing is still the leading screen-based behaviour. So with this massive exposure even small effects of TV viewing on health have the potential to impact health outcomes at a population level. Why did you choose to focus on this particular demographic age group? Would you expect the results to be replicated across all age groups? This work is part of a larger, international study (the ISCOLE study), so the 9-11 year old age range was selected for reasons independent of this study alone. However, the 9-11 year old age range represents a time in children's lives just prior to many of the changes that we expect to occur, in terms of lifestyle behaviours, as they progress through adolescence. ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news