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Television viewing and obesity: a prospective study in the 1958 British birth cohort

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 62, pages 1355–1363 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

To assess whether frequency of television viewing in adolescence (11 and 16 years) or early adulthood (23 years) affected subsequent changes in body mass index (BMI) through to mid-adulthood life, and waist–hip ratio in mid-adulthood.

Subjects:

The 1958 British birth cohort includes all births in 1 week in March 1958 in England, Scotland and Wales. The main analyses included at least 11 301 participants. Outcome measures included BMI at 16, 23, 33 and 45 years and waist–hip ratio at 45 years.

Results:

Watching television ‘often’ at 16 years (but not 11 years) was associated with a faster gain in BMI between 16 and 45 years in males (0.011 kg m−2 per year, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.003, 0.019) and females (0.013 kg m−2 per year, 95%CI 0.003, 0.023). More frequent television viewing at 11, 16 and 23 years was associated with a faster gain in BMI between 23 and 45 years in females, but not in males. Television viewing at 23 years was associated with waist–hip ratio at 45 years: participants watching ⩾5 times per week had a waist–hip ratio 0.01 higher than those watching less often. At 45 years, those watching television for ⩾4 h day−1 had a waist–hip ratio 0.03–0.04 higher than those watching for <1 h day−1.

Conclusions:

More frequent television viewing in adolescence and early adulthood is associated with greater BMI gains through to mid-adulthood and with central adiposity in mid-life. Television viewing may be a useful behaviour to target in strategies to prevent obesity.

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Acknowledgements

Data were obtained from the UK Data Archive, University of Essex (files: National Child Development Study, SN 3148, SN 4396). The following are the data providers: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education and National Birthday Trust Fund, National Children's Bureau, City University Social Statistics Research Unit (original data producers). Data collection at 45 years was funded by the Medical Research Council, Grant G0000934. Research at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust benefits from R&D funding received from the NHS Executive. Medical Research Council, UK (Special training fellowship held by T Parsons).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK

    T J Parsons & C Power

  2. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    O Manor

Authors
  1. T J Parsons
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  2. O Manor
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  3. C Power
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to T J Parsons.

Additional information

Contributors: TJP, OM and CP jointly developed the idea for the study, and planned the analysis. TJP did the analysis and wrote the first draft of the paper. All the authors contributed to the final version. All authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Parsons, T., Manor, O. & Power, C. Television viewing and obesity: a prospective study in the 1958 British birth cohort. Eur J Clin Nutr 62, 1355–1363 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602884

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