It's no secret that sedentary behavior contributes to obesity and chronically poor health. But not all sedentary behaviors are created equal, according to a new study that examines the link between blood pressure in children and their choice of inactive pastimes, including watching TV & Movies, using the computer and reading.
To determine levels of inactivity over one week, the children in the study wore accelerometers, which resemble pedometers but instead of tracking distance, they record the body's acceleration in a vertical plane — sitting results in a score of zero, and walking and running produce progressively higher scores. The researchers considered anything under a score of 50 per day as sedentary. They coupled this data with reports from the children's parents about how much time the kids spent in inactive pursuits, including watching television, sitting at a computer, playing video games, reading or doing other projects that don't require much movement.
The children were sedentary for five hours each day, and 1.5 of those hours were spent in front of a TV, computer or video game, on average. When the researchers further broke down screen time by activity, TV-viewing had the strongest correlation with higher blood pressure. Kids watching from 90 to 330 minutes of television each day had systolic and diastolic blood-pressure readings (the two numbers that indicate pressure caused by blood pumping from the top and bottom chambers of the heart, respectively) that were five to seven points higher than those of children watching less than half an hour of television a day.
So what is it about watching TV that's worse than playing video games or surfing the Internet? Certainly, playing games and using computers involve some movement, like fidgeting or changing body positions, but is that enough to explain the difference? The study's propose several other possible explanations. For instance, beyond the complete inactivity involved with TV-viewing — which alone raises the risk of high blood pressure — children may be compounding their sloth by eating junk food. "A full bag of chips or a plate of hot dogs can disappear a lot more quickly while watching TV than they might at any other occasion. And the types of foods that children are likely to be eating in front of the tube, like salty snacks, can push up blood pressure readings.
The question that has been debated by parents, psychologists and media critics for years is whether such racy content has an adverse effect on young viewers. Now researchers at the Rand Corp. say they have documented for the first time how such exposure can influence teen pregnancy rates. They found that teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV & Movies are twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age 20.
The relationship between exposure of this kind of content on TV and the risk of later pregnancy is fairly strong. a behavioral scientist and the study's author. "Even if it were diminished by other contributing factors, the association still holds." Such consistent exposure may explain in part why the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is double that of other industrialized nations. According to interviewed with 1,461 teens ages 12 to 17 by phone, speaking to them three times between 2001 and '04. While previous studies exploring the effect of TV content on teen pregnancy relied on onetime snapshots of adolescents' behavior, the continuity of her study reinforces the strength of the relationship she found between pregnancy and exposure to sexual content on television.
Previous research has revealed two major ways that this glamorized perception of sex contributes to teen pregnancy: by encouraging teens to become sexually active early in their adolescence and by promoting inconsistent use of contraceptives. And, add to this the fact that children are accessing television not just via the small screen at home but on the computer and increasingly on cell phones, and the opportunities for exposure to sexual content just explode. "It's not just 'appointment' television, now it's anytime television. "And this study was begun seven years ago, so if it were done today.
Yet it's neither likely nor realistic to expect the television and movie industries to curb the amount of sexual content in their products. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics created the Media Matters campaign more than a decade ago to promote awareness within the industry of how influential its TV shows and movies are to youngsters and to alert parents to the critical role they play in monitoring and mediating what their children watch. Having ammunition in the form of a study-based association documented just gives the message more impact.
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