[Television watching and some eating habits of 6-14-year-old children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; a cross-sectional study]

Abstract

Objective: To describe the time spent by children between the ages of 6-14 years watching television during a weekday and to examine associated factors.

Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Method: Data were collected during a vaccination campaign against meningococci C in Amsterdam in September 2002. From a sample of 2910 parents of 6-14-year-old children 1775 agreed to participate in the study. Socio-demographic characteristics and data on television viewing the previous day, the presence of a television in the child's bedroom and on eating habits were collected by short interviews.

Results: In total 1587 children were included in the analyses, 805 boys and 782 girls. In total 40.1% of the boys and 36.5% of the girls had watched television for > or = 2 h during the previous day. Among the children < or = 10 years 28.7% had a television in their bedroom, among children > 10 years this was 45.7%. Age (> 10 years), ethnicity (notably Surinam origin) and having a television in the bedroom was related to spending more time watching television. Having parents with a high socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with less television viewing than having parents with a lower SES. Children who had not eaten fresh fruit or who had visited a snackbar the previous day had been watching television for > or = 2 h more often than children who had eaten fresh fruit (p < 0.001) or who had not visited a snackbar (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Children spent a lot of time watching television. In view of the relation between television viewing and overweight this is an alarming development. Possibilities for the prevention of overweight by reducing television viewing must be investigated.