TV viewing associated with obesity and some metabolic-risk factors

It is often thought that TV viewing may be an indicator of sedentary lifestyle. In 1921 boys or girls from three European regions, aged 9 to 10 y and 15 to 16 y, the independent associations between TV viewing, physical activity (PA) as measured by accelerometry and metabolic risk factors (body fatness, blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, decreased HDL-cholesterol, glucose and insulin levels) were studied. Clustered metabolic risk was expressed as a continuously distributed score calculated as the average of the standardized values of the six subcomponents. TV viewing was positively (P=0.021) linked to adiposity, although its association with clustered metabolic risk was no longer significant (P=0.053) after adjusting for PA and other confounding factors. PA was independently and inversely associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin (all P<0.01), triglycerides (P=0.02), and the clustered risk (P<0.0001). This last association was independent of obesity and other confounding factors. The authors did not find an association between TV viewing and PA, while the association between TV viewing and adiposity was independent of PA. This suggests that TV viewing does not displace PA and that other factors, such as dietary behaviour and quality while viewing TV, may influence energy balance and thereby body weight. TV viewing and PA may be differently associated with obesity and metabolic risk, and thus require differentiated preventive actions in children.

Abstract