Watching TV and level of activity in children appear to be associated independently of each other with risk factors that may influence the chance that children have of developing metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases in later life.
An ongoing study, the European Youth Heart Study is examining the nature, strength, and interactions between personal, environmental, and lifestyle influences on later risk of these diseases. As part of this study, European researchers questioned 1,921 children from three regions in Portugal, Estonia and Denmark on the hours of TV viewed and measured their activity over a 4 day period. They also measured six metabolic-risk factors (body fatness, blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, inverted high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, glucose, and insulin levels and calculated a metabolic risk score for each child based on these risk factors.
The researchers showed that there was a positive association between TV viewing and adiposity (fatness), but not with the overall risk score. However, the physical activity of the children was independently and inversely associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides and with the overall risk score, independently of obesity and other factors.
TV viewing has previously been linked to metabolic-risk factors in youth. However, it had been unclear whether this association was independent of physical activity and obesity. This study showed that TV viewing and physical activity should be considered as separate entities as they are differently associated with adiposity and metabolic risk. The authors conclude that “preventive action against metabolic risk in children may need to target TV viewing and physical activity separately.”[2]
In the same journal, Andrew Prentice and Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK [3], discuss the implications of these findings. They state that public health lessons are clear. Interventions will need to target excess TV viewing and physical inactivity separately, yet together, to yield maximal improvements. Each will require a distinct set of approaches underpinned by different strategies to achieve socio-behavioural change. Reducing TV viewing requires a negative/restraining input with an inevitable element of denial, while enhancing physical activity requires positive/aspirational inputs.
The need for action is underlined by a very recent publication showing that the body mass index (kg/m2) of Danish children aged 7–13 years is a highly significant predictor of coronary events in adulthood [1]. As the levels of paediatric obesity continue to rise, children are accruing personal legacies that have future health implications.
EUFIC related material
References
[2] Baker JL, Olsen LW, Sørensen TIA (2006) Excess BMI at ages 7–13 years is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) in adulthood among 238,609 Danish schoolchildren. Obesity Rev 7(Suppl 2): 244.
[1] Ekelund U, Brage S, Froberg K, Harro M, Anderssen SA, et al. (2006) TV viewing and physical activity are independently associated with metabolic risk in children: The European youth heart study. PLoS Med 3(12): e488.
[3] Prentice A, Jebb S (2006) TV and Inactivity Are Separate Contributors to Metabolic Risk Factors in Children
Peer reviewed publication and references
The open access journal PLoS Medicine
.jpg)
