Background: Obesity is a health problem among
adolescents worldwide and television (TV) viewing
could promote it in several ways.
Objective: To determine the association between time
spent on TV viewing and obesity considering
economic status and residential area in primary
schoolchildren in the north of Iran.
Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was
carried out on primary schoolchildren from 112
schools. Schools and students were chosen by cluster
sampling. All children completed a questionnaire
containing questions on the socio-economic
condition. Overweight and obesity were classified
based on the Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) values with body mass index
(BMI) in excess of the 85th and 95th percentiles,
respectively. Daily time spent on TV viewing was
classified into 3 groups: less than 1 hour or no
watching, 1-2 hours and 3 hours or over. SPSS 16.0
software was used for statistical data analysis.
Results: Study population comprised 7,453 primary
schoolchildren (urban 3,662, rural 3,791). Of the
subjects 52.7% viewed TV for 3 hours or more. In
boys, prevalence of obesity had a positive association
with TV viewing time but in girls, it was not a steady
trend. In urban areas, time spent on TV viewing was
in line with obesity but wasting significantly
decreased with more time spent on TV viewing
(P=0.001). This association was not seen in rural
children. In the poor economic group, prevalence of
obesity significantly decreased with more time spent
on TV viewing (P=0.041) but this trend was not
found in the moderate economic group. In the good
economic group, the association between obesity and
time spent on the TV viewing was not significant.
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1Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Ischaemic
Disorders Research Centre, Golestan University of
Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
*Correspondence: grveghari@yahoo.com
(Received on 23 August 2014: Accepted after
revision on 24 October 2014)
Conclusion: About half of Iranian northern
schoolchildren spent 3 hours or more daily viewing
TV. A positive association between time spent on TV
viewing and obesity was seen in high income
families and in urban areas.