What children watch on daily TV has effect on how much they crave for what they see, a research has shown.
Obesity being the highest preventable cause of cancer in the UK after smoking. Being overweight or obese is associated with more than 22,000 cases of cancer each year (approx. 6% of all cancer cases)1.
A 2018 Cancer Research UK survey has however gone ahead to find out the likely cause of obesity in children which was discovered to be junks food they crave for, mostly as a result of what they see on TV or online.
According to the 2018 findings, children's love for junks food is influenced by the number of time spent on the internet.
In the research, using the Internet was associated with a 33% increased likelihood of buying junk food and drink. Children who used the Internet for over 3 hours per day had a 68% reduction in vegetable intake and a 71% reduction in fruit intake compared with children who used the Internet for little or no time.
The data which was obtained between 2011 and 2012 involved 2500 parent-child dyads.
Parents reported how frequently their child asks them for items he/she has seen advertised, with response options of “never”, “sometimes”, or “often”. Because the analysis strategy (binomial logistic regression, see below) required binary outcome variables, participants were allocated to a ‘low’ (“never”) or ‘any’ (“sometimes” or “often”) pester power (parental report) group.
The result show that children in this sample reported watching an average of 22 hours of TV per week; of this, an average of 12.2 hours (55.5%) was in commercial broadcasting .
It mean the result was substantially more than indicated by recent Ofcom media, which suggested that children aged 4 – 15 years in the UK watch around 12 hours per week of TV.
Increased commercial TV viewing was significantly associated with children’s increased frequency of purchase of HFSS (High in Fat, Salt and Sugar) foods and beverages with pocket money.
READ ALSO: UK ban advert on TV before 9pm watershed
For example, high commercial TV viewing was associated with 163% increased odds of sugary drink consumption, it was also associated with 45% increased odds of diet drink consumption. Medium levels of commercial TV viewing were also associated with increased odds of consumption of most HFSS items (sugary drinks, crisps, pastries, confectionery) and diet drinks.
The result also showed a direct effect of watching TV on obesity. The odds of children in the high commercial TV viewing group having overweight or obesity were 59% greater than for children in the low TV viewing group.
The researchers however gave recommendations on controlling the influence of TV adverts on general diet.
This includes ban on adverts on TV before 9pm watershed, protection for children exposed to advertising on Implement the demand and online and Implement Childhood Obesity Plan in full, including on restricting HFSS price promotions to help create an environment which supports families to make healthy choice.
0 Comments
Add comment