Association of a Television in the Bedroom With Increased Adiposity Gain in a Nationally Representative Sample of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

IMPORTANCE Obesity affects health in children and adolescents. Television viewing is an established risk factor for obesity in youth. No prospective study has assessed whether a bedroom television confers an additional risk for obesity in youth. OBJECTIVE To assess the prospective association between the presence of a bedroom television and change in body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), independent of television viewing, in a nationally representative sample of US children and adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a random-digit prospective telephone survey that captured children and adolescents from across the United States. Participants included 6522 boys and girls aged 10 to 14 years at baseline who were surveyed via telephone about media risk factors for obesity. Weighted regressions assessed adiposity at 2- and 4-year follow-up, controlling for television and movie viewing, video-game playing, parenting, age, sex, race or ethnicity, household income, and parental educational level. EXPOSURE Report of having a television in the bedroom at baseline. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Age- and sex-adjusted BMI based on self-report and parent report of weight and height at 2- and 4-year follow-up. RESULTS Distributions for age, sex, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic status were similar to census estimates for the US population. Sample weighting methods accounted for higher dropout rates among ethnic minorities and those with lower socioeconomic status. Bedroom televisions were reported by 59.1% of participants at baseline, with boys, ethnic minorities, and those of lower socioeconomic status having significantly higher rates. In multivariate analyses, having a bedroom television was associated with an excess BMI of 0.57 (95% CI, 0.31–0.82) and 0.75 (0.38–1.12) at years 2 and 4, respectively, and a BMI gain of 0.24 (0.02–0.45) from years 2 to 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Having a bedroom television is associated with weight gain beyond the effect of television viewing time. This association could be the result of uncaptured effects of television viewing or of disrupted sleep patterns. With the high prevalence of bedroom televisions, the effect attributable to this risk factor among US children and adolescents is excess weight of 8.7 million kg/y.

Systematic review of sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth: an update

“…The remaining 2 studies for screen time ) and TV viewing (Creighton et al 2011;Drenowatz et al 2013), and 1 study for computer use (Magee et al 2013) reported null findings. Among 9 of the studies, significant associations with body composition were not observed across all age groups (Hands et al 2011), sex groups (Altenburg et al 2012;Barnett et al 2010;Falbe et al 2013;Lin et al 2014), exposure measures (e.g., TV vs. movie) (Falbe et al 2013;Gilbert-Diamond et al 2014), or measures of body composition (Altenburg et al 2012;Grontved et al 2014). Primarily null findings were observed for accelerometer-derived sedentary time and breaks as well as video games and total sedentary behaviour with body composition.…”

“…a Includes 32 longitudinal studies (Van den Bulck and Hofman 2009; Barnett et al 2010;Calamaro et al 2010;Wijga et al 2010;Creighton et al 2011;Hands et al 2011;Miller 2011;Altenburg et al 2012;Augustin et al 2012;Barlett et al 2012;Basterfield et al 2012aBasterfield et al , 2012bDumith et al 2012;Ekelund et al 2012;Fuller-Tyszkiewicz et al 2012;Veitch et al 2012;Drenowatz et al 2013;Falbe et al 2013;Kwon et al 2013;Magee et al 2013;Mamun et al 2013;Mitchell et al 2013aMitchell et al , 2013bWilliams et al 2013;Berentzen et al 2014;Chen et al 2014;Gilbert-Diamond et al 2014;Grontved et al 2014;Lin et al 2014;Olafsdottir et al 2014).…”

The Role of Parenting Practices in the Home Environment among Underserved Youth

“…Previous measures of the home environment have largely focused on micro-level contributions, which include parenting practices, 7 availability/accessibility of foods, screen media (SM), and PAs, [8][9][10][11][12][13] family meal structure, [14][15][16] and household food security, [17][18][19] given that these components are most proximal to, and therefore influential of, children's daily lifestyles. Parenting practices are important components of children's home environments because they reflect behavioral strategies used by parents to regulate what, when, or how much children eat and engage in PA that can be targeted through behavioral change interventions.…”

The Relationship between Parental Behaviors and Children's Sugary Drink Consumption Is Moderated by a Television in the Child's Bedroom

“…20 There is also a substantial body of research documenting that a TV in a child's bedroom is a predictor (alone or in combination with other measures of TV and other screen time) of childhood obesity, poor diet, and sugary drink consumption specifically. [20][21][22][23][24][25] There is evidence that watching commercial TV exposes children to significant amounts of unhealthy food and beverage marketing, which, in turn, increases the likelihood of consuming of unhealthy products. 19 Experimental research has found that children eat more unhealthy snacks while watching TV that contains food commercials than TV with nonfood commercials.…”