Kids Who Have TV in Their Rooms More Likely to be Overweight

Allowing televisions inside your children’s bedroom is unlikely to be a good option after a new study revealed that children who have TVs inside their bedroom were more likely to be fat compared to other children, even if they did not watch it regularly. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, was conducted by researchers at Dartmouth University who observed more than 3,000 children between 10 and 14 years of age. All of the children had taken part in an ongoing survey of American adolescents, with the first survey done through telephone in 2003 with follow-up surveys done two and four years later.

The researchers found that children who had TVs in their bedroom gained an extra pound of weight every year and kept on gaining weight for all the four years.

“This study suggests that removing bedroom televisions may be an important step in our nation’s fight against child obesity. The medical landscape for children is rapidly changing, and future studies should also evaluate whether other types of electronic media devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers, also contribute to weight gain”, lead researcher Diane Gilbert-Diamond said.


Source-Medindia