and weekday data separately for each child. Accordingly, only one weekend recall and 2 weekday recalls were included in the analysis, which may have limited the reliability of the food and nutrient estimates and reduced the power to detect differences. The fat intakes reported by both samples were relatively low and may have reflected the children’s inability to report dietary intake, especially fat intake, or this finding may show true regional or ethnic differences in fat consumption.
Second, the samples were too small for analysis of differences insexorethnicity,andpoolingdatafromheterogeneoussamples increases the risk of invalid results (31, 32). For example, the 2 samples differed notably in vegetable intake. The fifth-grade children were from low-income, Latino homes in which beans, which were classified as a vegetable, were staple foods, and thereforetheirvegetableintakewassignificantlyhigherthanthat of the third-grade sample. The correlational results also differed between the 2 samples, so pooling the samples would likely obscure the differences in these relations and lead to misleading conclusions. Therefore, this research should be replicated in a large multiethnic sample.
In sum, this study shows that a significant proportion of children’s daily energy is consumed during television viewing, and the consumption of high-fat foods during television viewing on weekdays was associated with BMI in the third-grade sample. These findings support the speculation that eating while watching television is a potential mechanism linking television viewing to obesity. These results serve to justify future experimental studies to test this hypothesis. Interventions designed to help children change the types of foods consumed during television viewing, reduce food consumption during television viewing, or even reduce television viewing may markedly change children’s dietary intake patterns (33).
We thank Helena C Kraemer for statistical advice and Kara Hansen, Jennifer Styles, Melissa Saphir, Andrea Romero, and Rebecca Brown for assistance with data collection.
DMM was responsible for the design of the study, collection of the data, and thewritingofthemanuscript.JDKcontributedtothedesignofthestudyandthe securingoffunding.YWandAVwereresponsiblefordataanalysisandprovided statisticaladvice.TNRwasresponsibleforthesecuringoffunding,thedesignof the study, and the writing of the manuscript. None of the authors had advisory board affiliations or financial interests in the organizations sponsoring the research.