Researchers from the University of New York, Buffalo and Stanford Prevention Research Center in California claim that reducing screen time for children can help in curbing obesity. This study was conducted on 70 obese children and has been published in the medical journal, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
After a random selection of families they were categorized into two groups — intervention and control groups. The intervention group had a weekly budget of time for watching television and accessing the computer. When the budget would exhaust, the computers and televisions would stop functioning. They were also given an incentive of $2 for every half hour of the time they lost or went below the budget.
The control group was not given any weekly budget and children here could spend enough time in front of their screens. $2 was also given to them for participating in this trial.
Children of both the groups were monitored on the basis of their respective body mass index, calorie intake and physical activities for 6 months. This study ended after 2 whole years after which a number of assertive deductions were made.
Results of the study — Children Lose Weight with Fewer Calorie Intake
Some established results of the study include the following:
- Children in the intervention group reported a reduced screen time by an average of 17.5 hours for each week
- Children in the control group reduced screen time by a mere 5.2 hours per week
- Children in the intervention group recorded the consumption of fewer calories
- Children in the intervention also reported reduced body mass index
Researchers confidently asserted that reducing screen time for children can help them lose weight and thereby fight obesity. Another clarification which the researchers expressed about the study was that reduced screen time was related more to the changes of calories consumed rather than with changes in physical activity.
Conflicting Opinions — Children Lose Weight with Physical Activity
A study conducted by Mayo Clinic claims that the energy spent by lean children while moving is certainly more but the calories burnt by obese children are greater. In addition, the study also brought to light that children lost the same amount of energy while watching television and while playing video games.
The study also made known the fact that while walking on the treadmill and watching dance videos children both of normal weight and obese ones lost many calories. However the calories lost by obese children were six times more than when they kept sitting in front of screens.
While the first study agrees with reducing screen time to tackle child obesity through energy intake, the second talks of reducing screen time and fighting obesity through more of physical activity. On an average, children spend about 8 hours each day in front of screens. Researchers of the Mayo study believe that this trend and the trend of child obesity can be broken by including more activities in video and computer games that will help both normal weighing and obese children lose the extra weight.
