Abstract
BackgroundObesity has increased since the early 1980s, and despite numerous attempts, effective strategies to counter this worldwide epidemic are lacking. Food preferences are established early in life and are difficult to change later. There is therefore a need to identify factors that influence the development of food preferences. Our aim was therefore, to investigate cross-sectional and prospective associations between TV viewing habits and food preferences and habits, respectively. We hypothesized that more TV viewing was associated with less healthy concomitant and future food preferences and food habits.MethodsData are from the Danish part of European Youth Heart Study (EYHS) I and II, a prospective cohort study conducted among 8-10-year-old and 14-16-year-old Danes in 1997-98. Six years later 2003-04 the 8-10-year-olds were followed up at age 14-16 years, and a new group of 8-10-year olds were included. Data were analysed using mixed linear regression analysis. Cross-sectional analyses included 697 8-10-year-olds and 495 14-16-year-olds. Prospective analyses included 232 pupils with complete data at baseline and follow-up. Associations between TV viewing habits and the sum of healthy food preferences (ΣHFP), and the sum of healthy food habits (ΣHFH), respectively, were examined.ResultsInverse cross-sectional associations between TV viewing (h/day) and both ΣHFP and ΣHFH were present for both the 8-10-year-old and the 14-16-year-old boys and girls. The frequency of meals in front of the TV (times/week) was also inversely associated with ΣHFP among 8-10-year-old boys, and with ΣHFH in all sex- and age groups. Among girls, baseline TV viewing (h/day) was directly associated with adverse development in the ΣHFP during follow-up. The concomitant 6-year changes in ΣHFH and TV viewing (h/day) were inversely associated in boys.ConclusionsLong time spent on TV viewing, and possibly to a lesser degree, frequent consumption of meals during TV viewing, seem to be associated with generally having unhealthy food preferences and food habits among school-aged children. These associations, however, were not generally persistent after 6 years of follow-up.
Highlights
Obesity has increased since the early 1980s, and despite numerous attempts, effective strategies to counter this worldwide epidemic are lacking
We examined whether high levels of TV viewing were associated with unhealthy food preferences and food habits and found for both boys and girls that the more time spent in front of the TV the poorer the food preferences and food habits, the associations were slightly stronger in boys than girls
We examined if TV viewing habits at age 8-10 years and the 6-year changes in TV viewing habits were related to changes in food preferences and food habits during the 6 years of follow-up, but found that such associations were not consistent
Summary
Obesity has increased since the early 1980s, and despite numerous attempts, effective strategies to counter this worldwide epidemic are lacking. We hypothesized that more TV viewing was associated with less healthy concomitant and future food preferences and food habits. The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically since the early 1980s [1,2,3], and despite numerous attempts, effective strategies to counter this worldwide epidemic are still lacking. It is essential that healthy food preferences are encouraged and promoted from early childhood in order to establish healthy food habits later in life. Different aspects of TV viewing have been related to food habits and food preferences in children [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Husby et al [20] observed, in a qualitative study, that children with less healthy eating habits ate meals and snacks alone, often in front of the TV, more often than children with healthier eating habits
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