Too much TV ups asthma risk in kids

Young children who spend more than two hours a day watching television are at an increased risk of developing asthma, the results of a new study indicate.

The findings are based on more than 3,000 children in the UK whose respiratory health was tracked from birth to 11.5 years of age.

The parents of the children were questioned about their children’s wheezing symptoms every year. They were also asked whether asthma had been diagnosed by a doctor by the time the child was seven-and-a-half, but not before the age of three-and-a-half.

The parents were also asked to assess their children’s television viewing habits from the age of three-and-a-half.

According to the researchers, the amount of time spent in front of the television was used as a measurement of sedentary behaviour because personal computers and games consoles were not in widespread use at the time (mid-1990s).

The study found that by the age of 11.5, 6% of the children who had shown no asthmatic symptoms at the age of three-and-a-half had subsequently gone on to develop the condition. However those who watched television for more than two hours per day were almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with asthma compared to those who watched television less.

The results were not confined to one gender. They were also not confined to the children’s current weight.

The researchers from the University of Glasgow said that the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behaviour and asthma is complex. However they pointed to recent research which suggests that breathing patterns in children may be associated with sedentary behaviour, sparking developmental changes in the lungs and subsequent wheezing.

Details of these findings are published in the medical journal, Thorax.

An estimated one in every five children in Ireland has asthma. For more on the condition, see our Asthma Clinic at…http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/asthma/index.html

[Posted: Tue 03/03/2009]