Fast-food ad ban could cut child obesity: U.S. study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banning fast-food advertising on television in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, researchers said on Wednesday.
But the team at the National Bureau of Economic Research questioned whether it would be practical to impose that kind of government regulation — something only Sweden, Norway and Finland have done.
“We have known for some time that childhood obesity has gripped our culture, but little empirical research has been done that identifies television advertising as a possible cause,” said economist Shin-Yi Chou of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
“Hopefully, this line of research can lead to a serious discussion about the type of policies that can curb America’s obesity epidemic.”
For their study, funded in part by the federal government, Chou and colleagues used data on nearly 13,000 children from the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, both issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.
“The advertising measure used is the number of hours of spot television fast-food restaurant advertising messages seen per week,” they wrote in the Journal of Law and Economics.
“Our results indicate that a ban on these advertisements would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13.9 percent of children aged 2 to 5 are overweight, 18.8 percent of those aged 6 to 11 are and more than 17 percent of those 12 to 19.
The percentages have been steadily rising.
Television watching is also known to raise obesity rates, both because children exercise less and because it can interfere with sleep.
The Institute of Medicine reported in 2006 that there was compelling evidence linking food advertising on television and increased childhood obesity.
One study suggested that children viewed an average of about 20,000 commercials aired on television per year in the late 1970s, rising to 30,000 per year in the late 1980s and more than 40,000 per year in the late 1990s.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Osterman)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of obese American adults outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight, according to the latest statistics from the federal government. Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just
Full Post: Obese Americans now outweigh the merely overweight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Youth who study just a short walk from a fast-food outlet eat fewer fruit and vegetables, drink more soda and are more likely to be obese than students at other schools, according to research published Tuesday. The study, which involved more than 500,000 adolescents at middle schools and high schools in
Full Post: Fast food + nearby schools = fat kids
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Christopher Doering WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many American children are not eating enough fruit and vegetables and their diet lacks key nutrients, according to a report released on Wednesday that focuses on school food programs as a way to help prevent long-term health problems. School kids in the United States are getting too many calories from solid
Full Post: U.S. school meals may be key to better child health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Joene Hendry NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Living in a stressful household may raise a child’s risk of becoming obese, according to findings from a study of Swedish families. Compared with 5- to 6-year-old children living in families with low stress levels, age-matched children from “high-stress” families had about twice the risk for obesity, the study
Full Post: Family stress may make kids fat: study
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michelle Rizzo NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are often overweight and many turn to unhealthy weight loss practices, such as using over-the-counter diet aids without a doctor’s advice, fasting and taking laxatives, new research shows. Dr. Jean M. Lawrence, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, and colleagues
Full Post: Diabetic youth may try unhealthy dieting tactics