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OJHAS Vol. 9, Issue 2:
(2010 Apr-Jun) |
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| TV Viewing versus Play - Trends and Impact on Obesity |
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Manmeet Kaur Sodhi,
Assistant Professor,
(Pediatrics),
SGRD Institute of Medical Sciences,
Amritsar, Punjab
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Address For Correspondence |
Assistant Professor,
Department of Pediatrics,
SGRD Institute of Medical Sciences,
Amritsar, Punjab
E-mail:
doctor.manmeet@yahoo.com |
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Sodhi MK. TV Viewing versus Play - Trends and Impact on Obesity. Online J Health Allied Scs.
2010;9(2):6 |
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Submitted: May 2, 2010;
Accepted:
Jul 13, 2010; Published: Jul 30, 2010 |
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| Abstract: |
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A cross sectional descriptive
study was conducted involving 10000 students from randomly selected government
and private schools of Amritsar district to identify the trends of TV viewing
and playing in school children aged 5 years and above, to compare TV viewing in both sexes,
different age groups and urban versus rural children and to study the impact of TV viewing
and playing on obesity in children. The results showed that TV viewing has replaced outdoor playing in most children, irrespective of
age, sex and residence. A positive relation between TV viewing and obesity was
also documented.
Key Words: Television, play, leisure activity, obesity
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Altered societal trends have included
a significant decrease in outdoor recreation, an increased dependence
on electronic media, and the conceptual emergence of “time poverty”.1
TV viewing has become one of the most important daily activities that
compete with being active in childhood.2 Watching TV is
a passive event, with severe consequences of lifestyle. The amount of
TV viewing by young children is predictive of BMI some years later.3 It has also been observed that the time spent watching TV
correlates with children's request for, and parents' purchase of, foods
influenced by TV, which are mostly high in fats and sugars.4
The work related activity seems to have decreased and the leisure time is
dominated
by physically inactive pass times like TV viewing.5 The
time spent watching TV is positively correlated to BMI and skin fold
thickness.6 Parents also report that they prefer having
their children watch TV at home rather than play outside unattended.7
TV has replaced all other leisure activities including play, this being
a norm, and not an exception.
A cross sectional descriptive
study was conducted involving 10000 students from randomly selected government
and private schools, ten each, of Amritsar
district. The selected students were
thoroughly examined. The weight was measured by an error free standardized
weighing machine. The height was measured by a calibrated bar. The body mass
index was calculated according to the formula BMI=Weight (Kg)/ Height (M2). Obesity was classified in terms
of BMI as follows: BMI
25.0-27.4 = overweight, BMI >27.5 = Obesity. The TV and playing habits were asked
for and measured in hours/day. Specific questions regarding type of
play (outdoor/indoor) and favorite hobbies/leisure pursuits were put
to all children. The data was statistically analyzed.
The age and sex wise
mean TV viewing hours per day in the study population is shown in Table 1. The mean TV
watching
hours per day increased with age in both sexes. When compared, it was
observed that the mean TV viewing hours/day in males (2h/day in urban
population and 1.68h/day in rural population) were more than that of
the females (1.90h/day in urban population and 1.49h/day in rural
population).
The difference was found to be statistically highly significant (p<
0.0001). In the Indian household, the female child is expected to help
in the daily chores, where as male child is not. Male children have
more time for leisure pursuits like TV watching and video games.
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Table 1: TV Viewing in
children aged 5 years and above |
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Age (Yrs) |
Males |
Females |
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Urban |
Rural |
Urban |
Rural |
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Mean |
SD |
Mean |
SD |
Mean |
SD |
Mean |
SD |
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5 |
0.93 |
0.73 |
0.69 |
0.76 |
0.86 |
0.89 |
0.66 |
0.78 |
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6 |
0.99 |
0.83 |
0.91 |
0.78 |
0.91 |
0.67 |
0.82 |
0.88 |
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7 |
1.16 |
0.83 |
0.93 |
0.75 |
1.07 |
0.96 |
0.86 |
0.90 |
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8 |
1.36 |
0.79 |
1.13 |
0.78 |
1.27 |
0.64 |
0.88 |
0.81 |
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9 |
1.57 |
0.99 |
1.20 |
0.77 |
1.45 |
0.54 |
1.00 |
0.79 |
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10 |
1.89 |
0.91 |
1.61 |
0.75 |
1.77 |
0.88 |
1.26 |
0.89 |
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11 |
2.09 |
0.87 |
1.79 |
1.00 |
1.86 |
0.81 |
1.39 |
0.61 |
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12 |
2.27 |
0.90 |
1.86 |
0.60 |
2.11 |
0.80 |
1.64 |
0.78 |
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13 |
2.42 |
0.95 |
2.26 |
0.78 |
2.36 |
0.83 |
1.89 |
0.88 |
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14 |
2.60 |
0.75 |
2.31 |
0.93 |
2.53 |
0.98 |
2.12 |
0.89 |
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15 |
2.74 |
0.73 |
2.62 |
0.67 |
2.63 |
0.90 |
2.52 |
0.90 |
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16 |
2.95 |
0.61 |
2.90 |
0.76 |
2.90 |
0.88 |
2.83 |
0.75 |
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17 |
3.09 |
0.60 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
3.02 |
0.80 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
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2.00 |
0.81 |
1.68 |
0.00 |
1.90 |
0.88 |
1.49 |
0.84 |
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Male versus female - p<0.0001,
highly significant
Urban versus rural - p<0.0001,
highly significant
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It was observed that the urban children
watched more television/day than their rural friends. The urban male
children viewed an average of 2 hours of TV per day, whereas the rural
male children spent 1.68 hours watching TV. The rural female
children
spent 1.49 hours in a day watching TV, whereas the urban girls viewed
TV for a mean of 1.68 hours. The difference in TV viewing of urban
children
was significantly higher (p<0.0001) than the rural population. Urban
children are more used to TV watching in the recent years as increasing
urbanization and a busy schedule of both parents has cut down on
outdoor/active
leisure pursuits.8
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Table 2: TV and Play hours in obese and non
obese children
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Obese |
Non-obese |
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Sample |
Mean |
SD |
Sample |
Mean |
SD |
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Play hours |
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Indoor |
189 |
0.81 |
0.52 |
9811 |
0.59 |
0.67 |
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Outdoor |
189 |
0.96 |
0.76 |
9811 |
1.24 |
0.99 |
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TV hours |
189 |
2.29 |
0.52 |
9811 |
1.76 |
0.81 |
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Indoor: p<0.005,
highly significant; Outdoor:
p<0.005,
highly significant; TV:
p<0.0001, highly significant
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The mean indoor playing hours for the
non-obese was significantly lower as compared to the obese children.
Children who preferentially indoor games or spent more time indoors,
are subjected to less exercise than those ho played more of
field/outdoor
games. The mean outdoor playing hours of the non-obese were
significantly
higher than those of the non-obese. Obese children are particularly
sensitive to peer attitudes towards body shape and exercise performance,
thus they may limit outdoor and team sports and thereby avoiding social
interaction.9
Also important is the fact that
increases
in inactive leisure pursuits such as computer and video games has direct
correlation with increase in overweight in children.10
The mean TV viewing hours among the
obese (2.29 hours/day) was significantly higher than the mean TV viewing
hours (1.76 hours/day) in the non obese. It is observed that children
who were leaner tend to watch less TV than the fatter ones.11
A strong dose-response relationship between prevalence of obesity and
hours of TV viewed is well documented as the odds of being overweight
were 4.6 times greater in youth watching >5 hours of TV compared
with those watching 0-2 hours.12 The remote control has further
increased the sedentary nature of TV viewing, reducing which is a useful adjunct
in treatment of obesity.13
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Figure
1: Preferred hobbies/leisure activities in obese (white) and
non-obese (pink) children |
Figure 1 shows that when data regarding
hobbies/leisure activity was analyzed, it was found that in all
children,
the most preferred leisure activities were TV viewing, Videogames and
playing. Others hobbies included music, reading, creative pursuits like
pottery, painting etc. and martial arts. But, it is notable that
playing
and martial arts, both of which are active leisure pursuits are
significantly
lower in the obese children.Also, obese children preferred TV and video
games as their favourite hobbies, proving the link between obesity and
inactivity. A point of raised concern is the increasing presence of
TV sets and computer games in children's bedrooms.14
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Conclusions and Recommendations |
Limiting TV viewing and sedentary
leisure
activities like video/computer games will help curb the menace of
pediatric
obesity.15 It is recommended that outdoor playing should
be encouraged and supported at home and school.
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