Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109995

Kristen Riehman, MS, MPH¹, Judith McDivitt, PhD², Janet E. Fulton, PhD¹, and Danielle Thompson, BS². (1) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, MS K-46, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717, 770-488-5343, KPR3@cdc.gov, (2) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, 4770 Buford Hwy, MS K-46, Atlanta, GA 30341

Studies suggest that children's television viewing is a contributing factor to childhood overweight. Public health agencies and medical organizations recommend children limit TV viewing to two hours each day; but, all children may not achieve this recommendation. A child's home environment has been shown to influence the time they spend viewing TV. To identify intervention approaches that could be used to reduce the time children spend viewing TV, we examined characteristics associated with the home TV viewing environment. Data from 1,481 parent/child pairs in Porter Novelli's 2004 StylesŪ database were used for this analysis. The StylesŪ database is a set of linked market research surveys administered annually to a sample of adults and their children. A home environment thought to favorably influence TV viewing was defined as having the following three characteristics: (1) No TV in the child's bedroom; (2) Rules set by the parent to limit TV viewing; and (3) Low TV viewing by the parent. Characteristics of the parent thought to influence the child's home TV viewing environment included demographic characteristics (age, education, race/ethnicity, geographic location), involvement in the child's life, communication style with the child, and attitudes and perceptions about TV viewing. Differences by race/ethnicity, child age and gender were examined. This presentation will detail the characteristics associated with a favorable home TV viewing environment. Intervention approaches that focus on factors that favorably influence the home TV viewing environment will be introduced and discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe parental factors associated with a favorable home TV viewing environment.
• Introduce and discuss viable intervention approaches for parents to use to reduce the time their children spend viewing TV by making modifications to the home environment.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation