2 WEEK 2-ASSIGNMENT Research Article Summaries Magdalyn38 RES 5240 Applied Research Methods Feb.28, 2020 What is the Intricate Relationship between Television Watching and Childhood Obesity? 1. Caroli, M., Argentieri, L., Cardone, M., & Masi, A. (2004). Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. International Journal of Obesity, 28(3), S104-S108. The study seeks to come up with an explanation of the relationship between childhood obesity and TV watching. Food and obesity have many documented consequences and when coupled up with a sedentary lifestyle, the combined effects are quite negative. Specific aspects of TV watching, in this case, are documented and they are linked to the prevalence of childhood obesity in different countries in Europe. The intricate relationship between childhood obesity could also be attributed to the role of the different European government regulations which in all its differences has led to a significant difference in the prevalence of childhood obesity as per the authors of the article. The research sought to review the role of television in specific activities. Amongst them, one of the effects of TV is the fact that it replaces vigorous activities. As such, there is a positive correlation between the time in which one spends on TV watching and being overweight. This is regardless of the ages of the people. The TV watching activity, as presented in the article, is also linked to obesity prevalence among the different ages of children. Generally, the more the number of hours that one spends watching TV, the higher the chance they are going to be obese. Through the analysis of literature in the area, it is almost blatant that people that spent more than 4 hours on the TV seemed to have increased in the last 30 years. The analysis of literature was thematic in nature and this was geared towards finding information that was almost prevalent across the different secondary sources. The analysts targeted specific television food commercials targeting children, the use of food in movies and even other kid shows. Besides that, the obese subjects presented in kids’ content were reviewed with the aim of finding out ridiculous traits, and the results that worsen situations. The situation gets worse through the perceived isolation of these subjects. The method of enquiry in the article was evidently a literature study. The data obtained were mainly secondary data and this was through a thematic search of the secondary literature done in the area. 2. Zhang, G., Wu, L., Zhou, L., Lu, W., & Mao, C. (2016). Television watching and risk of childhood obesity: a meta-analysis. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(1), 13-18. This article is important and a viable contribution to the topic since it attempts to bring to light the relationship between the times spent watching TV and the risk of obesity among children. The article puts forward the argument that over the past few years, childhood obesity r.

1. 2
WEEK 2-ASSIGNMENT
Research Article Summaries
Magdalyn38
RES 5240 Applied Research Methods
Feb.28, 2020
What is the Intricate Relationship between Television Watching
and Childhood Obesity?
1. Caroli, M., Argentieri, L., Cardone, M., & Masi, A. (2004).
Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. International
Journal of Obesity, 28(3), S104-S108.
The study seeks to come up with an explanation of the
relationship between childhood obesity and TV watching. Food
and obesity have many documented consequences and when
coupled up with a sedentary lifestyle, the combined effects are
quite negative. Specific aspects of TV watching, in this case,
are documented and they are linked to the prevalence of
childhood obesity in different countries in Europe. The intricate
relationship between childhood obesity could also be attributed

2. to the role of the different European government regulations
which in all its differences has led to a significant difference in
the prevalence of childhood obesity as per the authors of the
article.
The research sought to review the role of television in specific
activities. Amongst them, one of the effects of TV is the fact
that it replaces vigorous activities. As such, there is a positive
correlation between the time in which one spends on TV
watching and being overweight. This is regardless of the ages of
the people. The TV watching activity, as presented in the
article, is also linked to obesity prevalence among the different
ages of children. Generally, the more the number of hours that
one spends watching TV, the higher the chance they are going
to be obese.
Through the analysis of literature in the area, it is almost
blatant that people that spent more than 4 hours on the TV
seemed to have increased in the last 30 years. The analysis of
literature was thematic in nature and this was geared towards
finding information that was almost prevalent across the
different secondary sources. The analysts targeted specific
television food commercials targeting children, the use of food
in movies and even other kid shows. Besides that, the obese
subjects presented in kids’ content were reviewed with the aim
of finding out ridiculous traits, and the results that worsen
situations. The situation gets worse through the perceived
isolation of these subjects. The method of enquiry in the article
was evidently a literature study. The data obtained were mainly
secondary data and this was through a thematic search of the
secondary literature done in the area.
2. Zhang, G., Wu, L., Zhou, L., Lu, W., & Mao, C. (2016).
Television watching and risk of childhood obesity: a meta-
analysis. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(1), 13-18.
This article is important and a viable contribution to the topic
since it attempts to bring to light the relationship between the
times spent watching TV and the risk of obesity among
children. The article puts forward the argument that over the

3. past few years, childhood obesity rates have risen at an
exponential rate. The pediatrics, in this note, have identified
specific modifiable risk factors of childhood obesity. Through a
thematic study of the literature in the area, it is quite prevalent
that the association between TV watching and childhood obesity
yields results that are not quite consistent. In the bid to reach
the ultimate objective, the researchers sought different articles
that helped in elucidating the role of TV watching on the
incidences of childhood obesity. The results of these different
articles were analyzed using specific aspects of Random-effects
models, and the dose-response analyses. This was with the
endeavor of coming up with a pool study of the results.
The analysis of the report was done through a meta-analysis of
24 reports which contained between 106 and 169 participants.
The analysis of subgroups was done using the available
characteristics of the studies as well as the demographic aspects
of the participants. As such, a multivariable-adjusted overall or
the issue of childhood obesity brought out the fact that there is
a 95% confidence interval. A linear-dose close relationship also
indicated that TV watching and childhood obesity had a positive
relationship and that with an hour daily of TV watching, the
chances of becoming obese increased by 13%. Conclusively, the
article succinctly brings to light handy solutions such as
reducing the sedentary behavior of children as an important
public health strategy.
The research evidently followed the strategy of analyzing the
effects of one’s physical activity on their heath, energy intake,
food advertising and the reduction of sleep time. The method of
enquiry in this research was through a thematic analysis. The
articles were taken from the PubMed and the Embase databases.
The analysis tool the form of Random-effects models as well as
the Meta-analyses in order to study the research results in a
pool.
3. Giammattei, J., Blix, G., Marshak, H. H., Wollitzer, A. O., &
Pettitt, D. J. (2003). Television watching and soft drink
consumption: associations with obesity in 11-to 13-year-old

4. schoolchildren. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine,
157(9), 882-886.
This source is important for the study since it highlights the
different predisposing factors affecting the rates of childhood
obesity amongst the children. The article sought to come up
with a succinct analysis of the prevalence of obesity amongst
the sixth and seventh grade students and then head over to
identify and determine the lifestyle parameters associated with
it. It was found that 35.3% of the students had a body mass
index (BMI) of the 85th percentile. 17.4% of them had a BMI
index of 95th percentile. The rates of obesity were even higher
amongst the Latino and were quite lower amongst the Asian and
non-Hispanic white students. It was quite evident that there is a
significant association between the BMI and the hours that these
students sit behind their TV screens. The soft drink
consumption during such hours was also common for these
students. The BMI index of students that watched two or more
hours was higher as compared by those that watched for a few
hours. For those who consumed e soft drinks during the time,
they had an even higher body mass index. Other predisposing
factors evidently are the social background of the students. The
Latino showed a higher rate of childhood obesity as compared
to other racial participants of the studies.
The authors of the article conclude that the time in which the
children watched television, as well as the number of soft drinks
consumed during the time, was significantly associated with
childhood obesity. The Latinos spent quite a great deal of time
watching TV and consumed more soft drinks as compared to the
non-Hispanic white and the Asian students. In essence, the type
of food which one consumer not only when watching TV but
also in the due course of their daily undertakings is a significant
determiner of their body mass index. The findings will be
beneficial in coming up with the preventive measures for these
kids.
The method used for enquiry is evidently a quantitative one.
The data was collected through interviewing and measuring the

5. body weight and height of the students. The respondents were
given a short questionnaire which they filled out and then sent
it to the researchers.
4. Hu, J., Ding, N., Yang, L., Ma, Y., Gao, M., & Wen, D.
(2019). Association between television viewing and early
childhood overweight and obesity: a pair-matched case-control
study in China. BMC pediatrics, 19(1), 184.
The article is important since it brings to light the relationship
between early childhood obesity and TV watching amongst the
children. The findings of the article shall be used to support the
early childhood investigation basing on the age differences of
the kids affected.
In the endeavor to reach to the end of this study, the authors of
the article headed over to conduct a study of the behavior of
933 children between the ages of 1-5 years. The children were
individually matched in the ratio of 1:2 i.e. the case and
controls. The bases for selection of these children were both
their individual ages and the community in which they came
from. During the study, a tool, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel, was
applied when seeking to find the relationship between the TV
viewing time of the children and other related unhealthy effects
they came with. In order to quantity the association between the
viewing of TV and child obesity, a conditional logistic
regression model was applied. The results of the study indicated
that watching TV for more than an hour had a positive
relationship with childhood obesity. It is also quite prevalent
that TV viewing and childhood obesity are quite significant
among children between the ages of 4 and 5 years. The results
also revealed that children between 1 and 3 years were less
overweight. Typically, this is a clear indicator of how TV
watching can have detrimental impacts on the BMI index of a
child. The ages in which obesity rates are high are kids that
have reached the ages of watching TV.
The study is quite authentic in its mode of approach to the
topic. This is evident by the fact that the study starts from a
search of participants; which ultimately avails quite a large

6. sample size. The method of enquiry into the study was
evidently quantitative. The data was categorically analyzed
using chi-squares and the continuous variables, on the other
hand, were assessed using the independent sample t-test. All
these were geared towards coming up with a true and fair
conclusion on the effects of TV watching behavior on the
overweight issues that the children were diagnosed with.
5. Alghadir, A. H., Gabr, S. A., & Iqbal, Z. A. (2016).
Television watching, diet and body mass index of school
children in Saudi Arabia. Pediatrics International, 58(4), 290-
294.
This study was geared towards assessing whether TV watching
was associated with an array of health and psychological issues
that children had. The article is important for the study since it
attempts to bring to light specific issues such as other
predisposing factors leading up to child obesity. The researchers
posit that an excessive intake of carbonated and sweetened
drinks, fast food and an inadequate intake of fruits and dairy
products amongst the children is linked to childhood obesity.
Since there is limited available literature in the area, cross
cultural aspects such as TV viewing, preferences of diet, and
sedentary lifestyle have some vast reaching effects on the
weight and health of school children. The survey was done in
Saudi Arabia. An online survey was done with the aim of
ascertaining the association between the effects of weight as
well as the duration of watching TV using aspects of BMI and
eating habits of the children.
The availability of TV in children’s rooms in Saudi Arabia, the
presence of high-fat food content in school were associated with
obesity amongst the children. It is critical to note that the
parents, as well as teachers, need some training so that they can
play an active preventive role in this.
The method of enquiry was quantitative, and this was meant to
assess the effects of TV watching and other related factors on
childhood obesity. A self-administered questionnaire was made
available through an online platform. The link was sent to the

7. school children so that they can participate in the study. The
assessment included specific demographic data of the students
and this packed family, their daily routine, the medical status of
the children and the number of hours they spent watching TV
each day. Other aspects of their self-perception of health, as
well as the daily eating habits as well as their meal preferences,
were also factored into the study. A total of 220 children
between the ages of 12 and 16 were participants in the study,
most of them attested to the fact that they watched TV for a
higher duration, and they consumed high-fat content foods. All
these were collected and then measured with their KPI.
REFERENCES:
Alghadir, A. H., Gabr, S. A., & Iqbal, Z. A. (2016). Television
watching, diet and body mass index of school children in Saudi
Arabia. Pediatrics International, 58(4), 290-294.
Caroli, M., Argentieri, L., Cardone, M., & Masi, A. (2004).
Role of television in childhood obesity prevention. International
Journal of Obesity, 28(3), S104-S108.
Giammattei, J., Blix, G., Marshak, H. H., Wollitzer, A. O., &
Pettitt, D. J. (2003). Television watching and soft drink
consumption: associations with obesity in 11-to 13-year-old
schoolchildren. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine,
157(9), 882-886.
Hu, J., Ding, N., Yang, L., Ma, Y., Gao, M., & Wen, D. (2019).
Association between television viewing and early childhood
overweight and obesity: a pair-matched case-control study in
China. BMC pediatrics, 19(1), 184.
Zhang, G., Wu, L., Zhou, L., Lu, W., & Mao, C. (2016).
Television watching and risk of childhood obesity: a meta-
analysis. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(1), 13-18.