LONDON: Children addicted to television are prone to obesity, so are those who get less sleep, a study has found. Scientists who carried out the study have established that children spending more time in front of television and less time in their sleep can get weight gain problems.
They have prepared a checklist and listed eight factors that are related to high risk of child obesity. The chief among them are more than eight hours a week in front of TVs and less than 10 1/2 hours of sleep. The others are high birth weight, early size, rapid weight gain, quick growth in years one and two, early body fat and having obese parents.
Dr John Reilly, of the University of Glasgow, who led the team of scientists, say: "Eight factors in early life are associated with an increased risk of obesity in childhood. There are certain factors, very early on, which can set you on a particular path in life to becoming obese."
He said that children at age of three start developing habits that can lead to overweight and obesity. "We shouldn't be complacent about the lifestyles of our children. What our study is showing is that although there are early growth risk factors, there are also a number of risk factors that relate to lifestyle, of three-year-olds and probably earlier, that seem to make a difference."
The study covered more than 9,000 children of seven years' age, who have been under observation since their birth. The findings are reported in the online British Medical Journal.
It is estimated that nearly 10 per cent of children in the world are obese or overweight. Their number is around 155 million. Obesity can cause type 2 diabetes and possibly heart disease, stroke and even cancer in later life.
Studies earlier have identified junk food and lifestyle as causes of obesity among the adolescents. It may be difficult to change their living pattern. But, if the reasons are found for obesity in much younger children, scientists feel, corrective measures can be easily taken.
The scientists believe that environment in which the child grows has a role in making him or her obese. And parents can definitely take steps to curb them. "Prevention strategies for childhood obesity to date have usually been unsuccessful and typically focus on change in lifestyle during childhood or adolescence. Future interventions might focus on environmental changes targeted at relatively short periods in early life, attempting to modify factors in early childhood which are independently related to later risk of obesity," says the study.
The scientists say the manner in which these factors contribute to making a child obese is very complex. In the case of parental obesity, the risk can be through genes or through a predisposition towards certain types of food. The impact of sleep, similarly, is through growth hormone secretion, reduction in food intake in the evening or lack of physical activity. Watching television could lead to reduced energy spending and increased food intake.
