Blogger Template by Blogcrowds

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Study Says TV Ads May Account for 1/3 to 1/7 of Obese American Children

Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 11:03 AM

If there were no advertising of unhealthy food on US television, between one in seven and one in three obese American children might not be obese, according a new study in the European Journal of Public Health.

"Limiting the exposure of children to marketing of energy-dense food could be part of a broader effort to make children’s diets healthier, said the study's authors, who built a mathematical simulation model to estimate the potential effects of reducing the exposure of 6- to 12-year-old US children to TV advertising for food on the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

The model was based on body measurements from NHANES 2003–04, the CDC-2000 cut-offs for weight categories, and scientific literature that relates advertising to consumption levels and consumption to body mass.


Labels: , , , ,

1 Comment:

  1. caroline said...
    February 4, 2010 at 11:17 AM  
    Although the study sounds awfully speculative, I agree that there would be a positive impact on kids' health if they weren't exposed to advertising for it.

    I work on a website called SpeakHealth, a platform for discussions about how culture and health connect. We have several short videos about this topic that you might be interested in; both have garnered some really insightful discussions about how media impacts health.

    http://speakhealth.org/free-speech-vs-health/

    http://speakhealth.org/the-ritual/

    We would love to hear your perspective as well!
    ~Caroline

Post a Comment



Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)