Center on Media and Child Health

Do Crime Rates Influence Sedentary Behavior?

In the last 30 years, technological changes have made staying inside more appealing to kids than ever before.  With TV, video games, computers and other media inside, kids aren't always interested in playing outside, or encouraged to do so.  One reason parents may actually want to keep their kids inside is because neighborhoods are less safe for kids to play in.

A new study by Brown et al investigates whether an area's crime rate influences the sedentary behavior of the children who live there. After studying a population of 4th graders in Texas, they found that:

• Boys were more likely to play video games in communities where robbery rates are high and sexual offenders are common
• Girls were more likely to watch TV in communities where sexual offenders are common, but they were less likely to use computers

The authors point out that given the link they found between crime rates and some kinds of media, and that using these media is sedentary in nature, then crime rates may be indirectly influencing obesity.

Take This Game and Run With It

Back in April we told you about an "active-adventure" video game in development by students at Carnegie Mellon.  The Pittsburgh News interviewed the creators and got to see the game in action! 

Players run on a pad when they want their character to run on-screen; jump when they want the character to jump; and step forward and swing their arm when they want the character to punch. The creators are hoping that this game offers a full-body action experience to combat the sedentary nature of most video games.  See video of game play

"Active-Adventure" Video Game in Development

The following was written by Garth DeAngelis, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.  To learn more about this project, see the team's blog. 

In the past 20 years, the percentage of overweight adolescents in the United States has more than doubled --  nearly 30% of American children today are considered obese or overweight. There are numerous reasons for this disturbing fact, but our team is striving to address one of them: the sedentary nature of video games.

There is an unfortunate correlation between the increase in child obesity and the popularity of video games. In 1999, the average child played video games for 29 minutes a day. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that number has more than doubled to approximately 63 minutes per day in 2007.  What can be done about this?

Since the 1980s, products have been released that merged movement and gaming such as Nintendo’s Power Pad (see original commercial) and Dance Dance Revolution (see DDR champs in action).   However, there has never been an “exergame” that combined traditional elements of gaming with active “exercise-based” inputs to create an immersive story with free exploratory navigability in an open world in the vein of a Zelda or Dungeons & Dragons epic.

The success of the Nintendo Wii (see demo) led us to believe that a game could be created that would combine exercise and fantasy worlds.  After meeting with medical experts at University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Campus, they recommended designing a way to increase a child’s heart rate when playing. We immediately thought of the success of the DDR dance pad. After extensive research, we couldn’t find any other game that re-designed the dance pad to be used for a non-dancing/simulation game.

We knew we could literally place the child in a video game hero’s shoes by re-purposing the foot pad. To make our hero jump over a chasm while being chased by a menacing enemy, the player will jump in their living room; when our hero unleashes a three-step melee combo on an antagonist, the player will not only swing their arms, but move their feet in conjunction to mimic the attack of their avatar. The child will be actively engaged in a traditional action-adventure experience, but their mind will be focused in the ‘flow’ of gameplay, not on burning calories. We believe this can be done precisely with our project, The Winds of Orbis: An Active-Adventure.

Our goal is not to supplant traditional exercise or sports activities. Rather, we hope to replace the sedentary 30 to 60 minutes a day that the average child spends sitting on the couch moving only their thumbs with an experience that will encourage them to stand up, move, and sweat while playing the type of game they already love with a smile on their face.

TV Dinners

63% of homes have the television on during meals.  Research has shown a number of concerns about this practice such as:

• People eat more junk food and fewer fruits and vegetables while watching TV
• People eat more food while watching TV than while listening to music

Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH, was interviewed for a podcast on this topic where he discusses what the research shows and explores options for parents.

For Teens, Media Trumps Health

In a new study in the Journal of School Nursing, researchers developed a questionnaire for middle school students to learn more about what measures they are willing to take to prevent obesity.  They found that teens are willing to exercise more and change their eating habits, but they are unwilling to give up video games or television in order to improve their health. 

McDonald's: They're Lovin It

Robinson, Borzekowski, Matheson, and Kraemer performed a study to see whether children's tastes were influenced by heavily marketed brands.  Over 60 preschool children tasted 5 pairs of identical food items.  In each pair, one item was packaged with the McDonald's logo, and one item was in unbranded packaging.  The children were asked whether the foods tasted the same or if one tasted better. 

The results of the study showed that overall, "children preferred the tastes of foods and drinks if they thought they were from McDonald’s."  Analysis of the results showed that children who  had TV sets in their houses and children who ate McDonald's food more often were more likely to say the McDonald's food tasted better than it's identical counterpart. 

The authors conclude that a food's branding influences young children's ideas of taste and that perhaps this idea could be used to encourage children eat more nutritious food.   

Shrek Hypocrisy Featured on The Colbert Report

Lovable cartoon movie-star Shrek is currently a spokesperson (spokes-ogre?) for the Department of Health and Human Services' "Go Out and Play" campaign aimed at getting kids active to prevent obesity. 

Meanwhile, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has conducted a review of other Shrek promotions and found that Shrek is also promoting over 70 different junk food products. 

This tale of hypocrisy made it all the way to The Colbert Report:

See research on food advertising from the CMCH Database of Research.

This Week in Research: Food, Sleep and Overweight

There are four new media-related studies:

• Bellissimo, N. et al.  Effect of television viewing at mealtime on food intake after a glucose preload.  Pediatric Research. 
  Finding:  "[Watching TV] while eating a meal contributes to increased energy intake by delaying normal mealtime satiation and reducing satiety signals from previously consumed foods."
• Li, S. et al.  The impact of media use on sleep patterns and sleep disorders among school-aged children in China.  Sleep.
  Finding:  "The presence of media in a child's bedroom and media use had a negative effect on children's sleep/wake patterns, duration of sleep, and sleep disorders."
• Heins, E. et al.  Bedtime, television and computer habits of primary school children in Germany.  Gesundheitswesen.
  Finding:  Owning a mobile phone, watching television more than 3 hours a day, or playing computer games more than 3 hours a day were associated with 9-10 year olds going to bed after 9 pm.
• Delva, J. et al.  Health-related behaviors and overweight: A study of Latino adolescents in the United States of America.  Pan American Journal of Public Health.
  Finding:  "For both genders, being overweight was...positively associated with the amount of television viewing."

Food for Thought: Is America Advertising Bad Health?

Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation released the largest study ever conducted of TV food advertising to children. Their findings include:

• Half of all ads shown during children's shows are for food, the top product seen by children.
• 34% of all food ads targeting youth are for candy or snacks.
• Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables aimed at children or teens.
• Roughly one in five food ads targeting children includes promotion of a website; the same number include the offer of a premium, such as a game or toy.

"Children of all ages see thousands of food ads a year, but tweens see more than any other age group," said Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Since tweens are at an age where they’re just becoming independent consumers, understanding what type of advertising they are exposed to is especially important."

For more information about the relationship between food advertising and overweight, we recommend the following recent articles:

• Chamberlain, LJ. et al. (2006) "Does children's screen time predict requests for advertised products? Cross-sectional and prospective analyses." Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
• Lobstein, T. and Dibb, S. (2005) "Evidence of a possible link between obesogenic food advertising and child overweight." Obesity Reviews.

Are You Saying I'm Fat?

Himes and Thompson performed a content analysis of television and movie scenes where overweight people were made fun of.  They found that "fat stigmatization commentary" was often verbal and often stated in the presence of the overweight person.  They also found that male characters were 3 times more likely than female characters to engage in overweight humor. 

Two other studies out this week:

• Margeirsdottir et al.  Strong association between time spent watching television and blood glucose control in children and adolescents with type-1 diabetes mellitus.  Diabetes Care.
  Finding: "Extensive TV watching is associated with poor blood glucose control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes."
• Adam et al.  Sleep timing and quantity in ecological and family context: A nationally representative time-diary study.  Journal of Family Psychology.
  Finding: For children, more time spent watching television predicted fewer hours of sleep.