Television Viewing in children associated with Metabolic Syndrome in Mid-Adulthood

Common sedentary behaviours that include TV viewing, video game playing, computer use collective termed "screen time" has increased worldwide. Children and adolescents are more addicted to these electronic gadgets on a whole and love spending time on it.

Sedentary behaviour (SB) is characterised by energy expenditure ≤ 1.5 metabolic equivalents involving predominantly prolonged sitting, watching television, reading, using the computer and other mobile devices, or passive transportation.

Time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence is associated with the increased risk of metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood finds a study published in Pediatrics. Every hour that kids ages 5 to 15 years spent watching television on average was linked with an additional 33% higher odds of developing metabolic syndrome later in life.

Researchers conducted a population-based birth cohort born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972 and 1973. Parent- and self-reported weekday television viewing times were recorded at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 32 years. The primary outcome was metabolic syndrome at age 45 years, defined as 3 or more of: high glycated hemoglobin; high waist circumference; high blood triglyceride; low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; and high blood pressure. Reported television viewing time and metabolic syndrome data were available for 870 (87%) of 997 surviving participants.

The key findings of the study are

• Mean television viewing time between ages 5 and 15 years was associated with metabolic syndrome at 45 years of age.

• This association persisted after adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status, and BMI at age 5 (odds ratio: 1.30; 95% confidence interval: 1.08 to 1.58; P = .006) and after further adjustment for adult television viewing (odds ratio: 1.26; 95% confidence interval: 1.03 to 1.54; P = .026).

• Childhood television viewing was also associated with lower cardiorespiratory fitness and higher BMI at 45 years of age.

Researchers concluded that “Time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence is associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome in mid-adulthood. Interventions to reduce screen time for children and young people may have long-lasting benefits for health.”

Reference: Nathan MacDonell, BBiomedSc, Robert J. Hancox, MD; Childhood and Adolescent Television Viewing and Metabolic Syndrome in Mid-Adulthood, Pediatrics e2022060768. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-060768.