Does Playing Video Games Lead To Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is a complex disease that can occur when a child is above a healthy weight for their age and height. The medical definition of childhood obesity is having a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile on the Centers Disease Control.

Scientist for the University looked at the health and behavior of over 16,300 children in United States and find out that at some point during childhood and early adolescent at first age 5, and later at 7 and 14. They observed that children that mostly pay video games as a young child had a higher BMI nine years later, compares to those who did not play video games.

The percentage of children who were obese in 1972 was approximately 9.5 precent. in 2002 the percentage of children who were obese rose to a 15.1 precent (child obesity) it only getting worse, especially with today "next generation" systems. video games are only growing in popularity, and as they become more popular, kids are becoming less active, and obesity is growing. the scientist found out that each hours the children play video games doubled the likelihood that the child was obese ( Warner). This is because children lack exercise by sitting on the couch playing video games. the scientist found that children who do not play video games had only a 6 precent chance of being over weight. those who played an hour of games per day saw their chance rise to 9 precent, two hours a day bumped the precent to 17, and three hours per day resulted in 23 precent chance the child will be overweight (Morris).

Physical activity was measured in terms of the number of days when the children took part in sports club or any class in which there was physical activity, from 1 to 6, representing five or more days a week and less than one day or none at all. Above the age of 14, children self-reported the average number of days per week in which they had moderate or vigorous physical activity, from 1(every day) to none at all. Regularity of bed time was also measured and classified as no or yes, based on the frequency with which they went to bed at the same time every day. The same was done with the consumption of sugary drinks and fatty foods.

The BMI (body mass index) was also calculated from the height and weight measurements taken at each of 5 visit. Race, gender and socioeconomic status were also used to adjust the results The study sample consisted of over 16,300 children, representing boys and girls equally. At age 5 and 7 the associations between video games use and BMI (body mass index) were small but consistent. Again, they found that regular bedtime at age 7, sugary drinks at age 7 and 11 years, physical activity at 7 year were all linked to video games use at age 5 and with a higher BMI at age 14 years. The fact that all the behaviors dealing with energy balance were associated at the age of 7 years led to the scientist exploring their possible role as mediator of the slight increase in BMI. However, only regular bedtime and the consumption of sugary drinks at the age of 7 years was found to be associated with video games use at five years, and with the BMI (body mass index) score at the age of 14 years.

Overall, the study found a significant association between video games use and BMI (body mass index) score, and about 37 percentage of this was due to combination of regular bedtime and sugary drinks consumption. This is the first study to plainly explore how video games use and the BMI (body mass index) are linked. The partial role played by regular bedtimes and sugary beverage intake is also evident. This agrees with older studies showing that these factors are linked.

The scientist suggest that children playing a lot of video games drink more sweet drinks because they view many embedded advertisements for these drinks, among other things. these can impress the implicit memory, which in turn link the brand advertised with the game, and builds the brand image over time. sugary drinks are know to affect BMI (body mass index).