A recently completed study indicates that Finnish children who spend a lot of time in front of screens have a heightened risk for overweight and abdominal obesity, regardless of the extent of their physical activity.
A recently completed study indicates that Finnish children who spend a lot of time in front of screens have a heightened risk for overweight and abdominal obesity, regardless of the extent of their physical activity.
The increase in childhood obesity is one of the largest health problems globally. The study investigated links between screen time and overweight by utilising the Finnish Health in Teens data (Fin-HIT), encompassing more than 10,000 children from across Finland. The children studied were between 9 and 12 years of age.
The subjects reported the time spent viewing television programmes and films on screens and the amount of sedentary computer use outside school hours. The children were measured for height, weight and waist circumference.
The results, published in the Scientific Reports journal, demonstrated that heavy screen time is associated with both overweight and abdominal obesity. There was no variance in the findings by age, gender, native language, sleep duration and exercise during free time. Watching a lot of television was also associated with overweight and abdominal obesity in children who exercised the most.
Read more at University of Helsinki
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