Relationship between Television Viewing and Body Mass Index in School Children

Obesity has become a global epidemic and a prevalent problem even in developing countries including India, affecting both children and adults. The general known cause for childhood obesity is the imbalance between caloric intake and energy output; that is inactivity resulting from the advancement of technology, television, video games, and computers all of which contribute to a child's lazy life style by allowing them to be entertained without leaving their homes. The objectives of the study were to compare the correlation between television watching and BMI among male and female school children, to find the association between selected factors (games, physical activity and food items) and BMI among male and female school children. The information regarding background factors and television viewing were collected by a semi structured interview schedule from 400 school children (199 male and 201 females) selected by convenient sampling who fulfilled the sampling criteria. The weight was assessed using the electronic weighing machine and height was measured using stature measure. There was no significant relationship between television watching and body mass index among male and female school children, r = 0.106 (P > 0.05), r = 0.127 (P > 0.05). The selected factors made no significant difference in the BMI among male and females school children.