Eating While Watching TV: Does It Affect Obesity?

---

Matheson DM, Killen JD, Wang Y, et al.: Children’s food consumption during television viewing. Am J Clin Nutr 79:1088-1094, 2004.

What is the problem, and what is known about it so far?

Studies have shown that children who eat while watching television are more likely to be obese. However, there is little information on what children actually eat while they watch television.

This study was designed to find out how much and what types of foods children eat while watching television. The study also looked at how these foods affect children's BMI (a measure of a person's weight in relation to height).

Who was studied?

Two groups were studied from 1999-2000. The first included an ethnically diverse group of third graders from 12 elementary schools in northern California. They were already participating in a clinical trial on reducing television watching. The second group included mostly Latino fifth-grade children from eight low-income elementary schools in San Jose, Calif. They were already participating in a school-based clinical trial on reducing obesity.

How was the study done?

On three different days, researchers asked students if they watched television and what they were eating while they watched. Mothers confirmed and clarified this information and reported on student's age, sex, and ethnicity. Each student's height and weight was measured, and BMI was calculated for each.

The researchers also measured the average energy intake, percentage of energy from fat, and the average amount of soda, sweets, snack foods, fast foods, fruit, and vegetables the kids ate. They compared the results for weekends and weekdays.

The researchers also calculated the food and energy the kids ate while they watched television, how much they ate, and the types of foods they ate.

What did the researchers find?

Researchers found that kids ate while watching television more than if they were doing another activity. In addition, the researchers found that a lot of what the children ate during the day was eaten while they watched television on the weekends. Eating food with a lot of fat on weekends may be linked to high BMI measurements in some of the children.

Researchers also found that the third-grade kids who drank soda on weekends weighed more than the kids who didn't.

Children in the fifth-grade sample ate foods with more fat on the weekends. They also were less likely to eat vegetables, sweets, and snack foods and more likely to drink sodas when they were watching television.

What were the limitations of the study?

The study relied on information that the children and their parents remembered. In addition, researchers only requested information from one weekend and two weekdays.

Also, the groups of children were too small to accurately look at the relationship between BMI and sex and ethnicity. Gathering information from different studies already in progress may have increased the risk of invalid results.

Finally, the two groups differed in how many vegetables the children ate.

A similar study with more ethnically diverse children and for a longer period of time would help in understanding this issue.

What are the implications of the study?

It's important to understand how much and what types of food children eat while watching television in order to better understand childhood obesity. More studies are needed to test the relationship between watching television and obesity.

Changing the types of food children eat while they watch television and reducing the amount of food they eat can help keep children's weight in a healthy range.