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An intervention to reduce television viewing by preschool children
Barbara A Dennison1, Theresa J Russo, Patrick A Burdick
1Research Institute, Bassett Healthcare, 1 Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326, USA. barbara.dennison@bassett.org
Background:
Television viewing has been associated with increased violence in play and higher rates of obesity. Although there are interventions to reduce television viewing by school-aged children, there are none for younger children.
Objective:
To develop and evaluate an intervention to reduce television viewing by preschool children.
Design:
Randomized controlled trial conducted in 16 preschool and/or day care centers in rural upstate New York.
Patients:
Children aged 2.6 through 5.5 years.
Intervention:
Children attending intervention centers received a 7-session program designed to reduce television viewing as part of a health promotion curriculum, whereas children attending the control centers received a safety and injury prevention program.
Outcome Measurements:
Change in parent-reported child television/video viewing and measured growth variables.
Results:
Before the intervention, the intervention and control groups viewed 11.9 and 14.0 h/wk of television/videos, respectively. Afterward, children in the intervention group decreased their television/video viewing 3.1 h/wk, whereas children in the control group increased their viewing by 1.6 h/wk, for an adjusted difference between the groups of -4.7 h/wk (95% confidence interval, -8.4 to -1.0 h/wk; P =.02). The percentage of children watching television/videos more than 2 h/d also decreased significantly from 33% to 18% among the intervention group, compared with an increase of 41% to 47% among the control group, for a difference of -21.5% (95% confidence interval, -42.5% to -0.5%; P =.046). There were no statistically significant differences in children's growth between groups.
Conclusions:
This study is the first to show that a preschool-based intervention can lead to reductions in young children's television/video viewing. Further research is needed to determine the long-term effects associated with reductions in young children's television viewing.