The study will also examine the relationship between exposure to ads promoting health – those that encourage the consumption of fruit and vegetables and regular physical activity – and individual behaviors related to the results of feeding, activity and weight.This study is the first announcement to combine scores food, beverage and restaurant nutritional data with individual data on obesity to analyze the relationship between exposure of the products, the nutritional content of the shows advertising and food consumption, diet quality and obesity, the researchers said.
This work builds on previous studies Powell and his colleagues conducted examining the effects of environmental factors on childhood obesity.
Research, Powell said, can provide important information for policy makers and public health advocates about the potential effectiveness of television advertising food to children and to regulate use the media as tools for political campaigns with TV improved health outcomes.
By measuring the types of ads that children of all ages and races are exposed, the researchers hope to be able to determine whether the practices of advertising and television viewing habits contribute to differences in diet and obesity in children whites and blacks.
Co-investigators are Sherry Emery, senior researcher at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy, Carol Braunschweig, associate professor of human nutrition; Euna Han, an economist at the Institute of Health Research and Health Policy, and Frank Chaloupka , distinguished professor of economics and director of the UIC Center for Health Policy.
Previous research by Powell and his colleagues showed that 98 % of food ads seen by children 2 to 11, and 89 % of those considered by adolescents aged 12 to 17 years were foods rich in fat, sugar or sodium .
‘A number of studies have shown that increased television viewing is associated with increased body weight results in children, but were not able to determine if this is directly due to the nature of advertising children see,’ said Lisa Powell , research professor of economics at UIC and principal investigator of the study.
Powell hopes this study will be crucial in determining whether more regulation may be necessary for the advertising of foods in children’s programs.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Health Research and Policy has received a grant of $ 2.2 million from the federal government to determine whether television advertising influences the food, child nutrition, physical activity and weight..
Making TV Ads Affect child nutrition, obesity?