Posted on May 7, 2001 at 2:20 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — In a study of obese children, researchers found that when television viewing is contingent on physical activity, the children watch significantly less TV, and they lose weight. Details of the study, led by David Allison, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics in the School of Public Health and the Center for Research on Clinical Nutrition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), appear in the May 2001 issue of Pediatrics.
Allison conducted the study at the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeons in New York, N.Y. He joined the UAB faculty in March 2001.
The 12-week pilot study of 10 obese children required the children to pedal a stationary cycle in order to watch television. “Television watching dropped from an average of 21 hours a week to an average of about one hour a week,” Allison says. “And the children showed significant reductions in body fat.”
The percentage of young people in the United States who are overweight has doubled since 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is particularly concerning because obesity is a major risk factor for other serious diseases including diabetes and heart disease. Obese children are also more likely to be obese as adults.
Children participating in the study were ages 8 to 12, severely overweight, watched at least two hours of television a day and did not regularly participate in any physical activity. During the study, children’s TV viewing was restricted to a single TV in the house that was electronically connected to a stationary cycle. The “TV cycles” required the children to continuously pedal the cycles to turn on the televisions.
Weight-loss programs have been developed that aim to reduce TV viewing by restricting access to the TV. “In our study, TV was used as an incentive to increase the children’s physical activity in the home,” Allison says. “It is a win-win situation — whether the child chooses to pedal the cycle and watch TV or do something else that may be less sedentary.”
The study suggests that contingencies designed to increase physical activity while limiting sedentary behaviors, like watching TV, may be one way to treat childhood obesity. “Inactivity and watching too much television appear to promote childhood obesity,” Allison says. “Changing these behaviors is critical in treating children who are overweight.”
Other researchers who collaborated on the study are Myles Faith, Ph.D., Nathaniel Berman, Moonseong Heo, Ph.D., Angelo Pietrobelli, M.D., and Dympna Gallagher, Ed.D., with the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeons, New York, N.Y.; Leonard H. Epstein, Ph.D., with the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory, department of psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo; and Mark T. Eiden, with Amherst Systems, Buffalo, N.Y.