Nutrition and body weights of Canadian children watching television and eating while watching television

• Published in: Public health nutrition Vol. 12; no. 12; pp. 2457 - 2463
• Main Authors: Liang, Tina, Kuhle, Stefan, Veugelers, Paul J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2009
• Subjects: Body Weight; Body Weight - physiology; Canada; Child; child nutrition; Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Children; Diet; Diet - standards; Diet - statistics & numerical data; Eating; Eating - physiology; Energy Intake; Energy Intake - physiology; epidemiology; etiology; Feeding Behavior; Female; food frequency questionnaires; Fruits; Health Behavior; Health promotion; height; Humans; Life Style; Logistic Models; Male; Meals; Multivariate Analysis; Nova Scotia; Nova Scotia - epidemiology; Nutrition; Nutrition Surveys; Obesity; Overweight; Overweight - epidemiology; Overweight - etiology; physiology; Risk Factors; Schools; Snack foods; statistics & numerical data; Students; Teenagers; Television; Television viewing; Time Factors; weight; Canada; Nova Scotia; United States > US; Nova Scotia Canada; Canada, Nova Scotia; Obesity; Children; Nutrition; Television viewing
• ISSN: 1368-9800; 1475-2727; 1475-2727
• DOI: 10.1017/S1368980009005564

To examine whether eating while watching television poses a risk for poor nutrition and excess body weight over and above that of time spent watching television. We analysed data of grade 5 students participating in a comprehensive population-based survey in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. This survey included the Harvard's Youth Food Frequency Questionnaire, students' height and weight measurements, and a parent survey. We applied multivariable linear and logistic random effects models to quantify the associations of watching television and eating while watching television with diet quality and body weight. The province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Grade 5 students (n 4966). Eating supper while watching television negatively affected the consumption of fruits and vegetables and overall diet quality. More frequent supper while watching television was associated with more soft drink consumption, a higher percentage energy intake from sugar out of total energy from carbohydrate, a higher percentage energy intake from fat, and a higher percentage energy intake from snack food. These associations appeared independent of time children spent watching television. Both watching television and eating while watching television were positively and independently associated with overweight. Our observations suggest that both sedentary behaviours from time spent watching television as well as poor nutrition as a result of eating while watching television contribute to overweight in children. They justify current health promotion targeting time spent watching television and call for promotion of family meals as a means to avoid eating in front of the television.