November 20, 2008
Three decades ago the government banned cigarette ads from the
airwaves in a bid to reduce smoking-related illness. Now, some health
experts say its time to take similar action against ads for fast food
restaurants.
Researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research say such a ban could reduce the number of obese children in the U.S. by as much as 18 percent. Economist Shin-Yi Chou of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania says the study is the first empirical research to make the connection.
The research team used data from the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, commissioned by the U.S. Labor Department. They measured the rate of child obesity against the number of hours of fast food restaurant ads viewed in a given week.
"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 authors write.
Approximately 30.3 percent of U.S. children, age 6 to 11, are overweight and 15.3 percent are obese. Among adolescents, ages 12 to 19, 30.4 percent are overweight and 15.5 percent are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These numbers are even more dramatic when compared to Mexican American children of whom 39.3 percent are overweight and 23.7 percent are obese, the agency notes.
In speculating on the possible reasons for the explosion in childhood obesity, the CDC says "there has been a surge in the amount of time children are spending watching TV and playing video games instead of playing outside."
The Institute of Medicine reported in 2006 that there was compelling evidence linking food advertising on television and increased childhood obesity.
TV can be a negative influence on children's health, whether the message is in English or Spanish, according to research led by pediatricians from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Latino children, who make up one-fifth of the U.S. child population, also have the highest obesity and overweight rates of all ethnic groups. A report on the study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was released earlier this year.
"While we cannot blame overweight and obesity solely on TV commercials, there is solid evidence that children exposed to such messages tend to have unhealthy diets and to be overweight," said study lead investigator Darcy Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatrician at John Hopkins Children's Center.
Past research among English-speaking children has shown that TV ads influence food preferences, particularly among the more impressionable young viewers.
