Having a television in the bedroom can increase the risk of obesity in children
Having a television in the bedroom can increase the Risk of obesity in children, as evidenced by a study by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Los Angeles (United States), which has been published in the American Journal of Medicine.
In particular, the main author of this work, Dr. Peter T. Katzmarzyk, hypothesizes that "the high levels of television viewing and the presence of a television in the bedroom are associated with a specific deposit of adiposity and risk cardiometabolic ".
For him, the association established between television and obesity was based on body mass index, however, the association between television and fat mass "is less known". For it, and after concluding the study, indicates that "more than two hours of television a day significantly increase the size of the waist of children."
However, American children between 8 and 18 years old spend an average of 4.5 hours in front of the television, he explains. Of them, "seventy percent have a television in the bedroom and about a third of those between 6 and 19 are obese," he says.
ALSO RELATES TO ELEVATED CHOLESTEROL IN THE ADULT STAGE
In addition, as evidenced by previous work, the time of watching television during childhood and adolescence continues into adulthood, "which translates into excess weight and high cholesterol," he says. Therefore, it was decided to evaluate 369 children between five and 18 years old between 2010 and 2011.
These children had a high body mass index because of "the circumference of their waist, their resting blood pressure, their fasting triglycerides, their high cholesterol and glucose density lipoproteins, their fat mass and their stomach fat", points out Of all the participants, who claimed to have a television in their room had "more fat and subcutaneous adipose tissue mass, as well as a larger waist circumference", observes Katzmarzyk.
Therefore, it follows that children with a television set in their bedroom and watching television for more than two hours a day "are up to 2.5 more likely to have high levels of fat mass," he says. However, owning a television in the room is not only related to obesity, it can also cause "less sleep".
This is explained by the co-author of the study, Dr. Amanda Staiano, who concludes that a television in a child's bedroom "can create additional disturbances to healthy habits."
