Having a TV in the bedroom makes children fatter – even if they watch very little, warn researchers.
They found children aged 10 to 14 years with a bedroom TV weighed around 1lb more than those who did not have a personal set.
They had a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) – the score used to assess overweight and obesity – which steadily increased over time.
The weight gain was unrelated to the amount of time spent viewing, says a report in JAMA Pediatrics journal.
U.S. experts blame disrupted sleep, or possibly greater exposure to food advertising aimed at children.
They called for investigation of the health effects of electronic media devices such as tablets and laptop computers, which are growing in popularity among youngsters compared with TVs.
The study used a telephone survey in 2003 of 6,522 boys and girls aged 10 to 14 years to ask about bedroom televisions, with three out of five having a TV in their room.
The children’s weight and BMI were checked two and four years later.
On average, children with a bedroom TV were 0.4 kg heavier, almost a pound more, and had gained half a BMI point in two years and 0.75 in four years.
The weight gain was unrelated to the time they spent watching TV.
Diane Gilbert-Diamond, of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, said the link could possibly be due to disrupted sleep patterns or greater exposure to child-targeted food advertising, although this study did not investigate causal reasons.
‘This study suggests that removing bedroom televisions may be an important step in the fight against child obesity,’ she said.
