Researchers Find Value in TV Allowance
Posted on: Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 21:00 CDT
There may be an easy way to stop your young couch potato from getting fat.
A simple-to-use, low-cost device can limit the time children spend in front of the television or computer, lowering their weight and preventing obesity, a University at Buffalo study suggests.
Researchers used a device called the TV allowance to monitor the television and computer use of 70 boys and girls 4 to 7 years old. The study included children who watched television or played computer games at least 14 hours a week and had an above-average body-mass index, a ratio of height to weight.
The device, the size of a large calculator and costing about $100, allows families to program their television sets and computers with weekly screen-time budgets. In the study, families' screen time was reduced by 10 percent a month until it was cut by 50 percent.
Children also received incentives for doing something other than sitting in front of a screen.
The intervention group earned 25 cents for each half hour under budget, up to $2 per week, and their parents were instructed to praise them for doing other activities. Decreased television and computer time was also reinforced by a sticker chart, followed by a monthly newsletter that offered support for changing behavior.
The result: The study, which appears in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, concluded that devices to reduce television viewing also can be used as part of a comprehensive obesity treatment program.
Parents in the study group reduced their children's video time by an average 17.5 hours a week. The children also ate less and lowered their body-mass index. Children in a comparison group that used the TV allowance without restrictions reduced their viewing time by only five hours per week.
"Results showed that watching television and playing computer games can lead to obesity by reducing the amount of time that children are physically active, or by increasing the amount of food they consume as they are engaged in these sedentary behaviors," said Leonard Epstein, UB distinguished professor of pediatrics, health behavior and social and preventive medicine, and first author on the study.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under age 2 and no more than two hours a day for children 2 years old or older.
Changes in body-mass index between the two groups of children was most significant at six and 12 months but became more modest by the end of the two-year study.
"Although the changes overall were modest, a small effect of using this simple and inexpensive intervention, magnified across the population, may produce important reductions in obesity and obesity- related health problems," Epstein said.
An additional finding: The intervention did not result in an increase in physical activity, suggesting that reduced television viewing may minimize cues to eat by decreasing exposure to television food advertising aimed at children.
The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases and by the UB Behavioral Medicine Laboratory.
One of the more useful aspects of the research by Epstein and his colleagues is that it clearly documents an effective method to curb screen time, Steven L. Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology at Harvard University, wrote in an editorial that accompanied the study.
TV Allowance, a product of Mindmaster in Florida, is one of a number of devices available to limit time in front of a television set or computer screen.
Source: Buffalo News
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