Television viewing habits associated with obesity risk factors: a survey of Melbourne schoolchildren. Salmon, Jo, Campbell, Karen and Crawford, David 2006, Television viewing habits associated with obesity risk factors: a survey of Melbourne schoolchildren., Medical journal of Australia, vol. 184, no. 2, pp. 64-67. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Television viewing habits associated with obesity risk factors: a survey of Melbourne schoolchildren. Author(s) Salmon, Jo orcid.org/0000-0002-4734-6354 Campbell, Karen orcid.org/0000-0002-4499-3396 Crawford, David orcid.org/0000-0002-2467-7556 Journal name Medical journal of Australia Volume number 184 Issue number 2 Start page 64 End page 67 Publisher Australasian Medical Pub. Co Place of publication Sydney, N.S.W Publication date 2006-01-16 ISSN 0025-729X 1326-5377 Summary Objectives: To examine whether children’s television viewing may be a useful indicator of risk of obesity-promoting versus healthy eating behaviours, low-level physical activity (PA) and overweight or obesity among children of primary school entry and exit ages. Design: Cross-sectional study, stratified by area-level socioeconomic status. Participants and setting: 1560 children (613 aged 5–6 years [50% boys], and 947 aged 10–12 years [46% boys]) from 24 primary schools in Melbourne, Australia, randomly selected proportionate to school size between 1 November 2002 and 30 December 2003 . Main outcome measures: Parents’ reports of the time their child spends watching television, their participation in organised physical activities (PA), and their food intake; each child’s measured height and weight and their PA levels as assessed by accelerometry for one week. Results: After adjusting for the age and sex of child, the parents’ level of education, clustering by school, and all other health behaviour variables, children who watched television for > 2 h/day were significantly more likely than children who watched television for ≤ 2 h/day to: to have one or more serves/day of high energy drinks (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 2.31; 95% CI, 1.61–3.32), and to have one or more serves/day of savoury snacks (AOR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.04–2.17). They were also less likely to have two or more serves/day of fruit (AOR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.46–0.74), or to participate in any organised PA (AOR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.34–0.80). Conclusions: Health practitioners in the primary care setting may find that asking whether a child watches television for more than 2 hours daily can be a useful indicator of a child’s risk of poor diet and low physical activity level. Language eng Field of Research 111706 Epidemiology HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2006, The Medical Journal of Australia Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30003786 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 16 Oct 2008, 09:16:46 EST Tue, 28 Apr 2009, 16:57:27 EST Fri, 13 Jun 2014, 23:51:12 EST Wed, 02 Jul 2014, 16:08:42 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 181 times in TR Web of Science Cited 183 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 1326 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 07 Jul 2008, 09:03:09 EST