Role Of Television In Promoting Children Obesity - Research Paper Example

Research paper topic: ‘Role of television, when watched excessively by children, in promoting obesity.’ The research paper is going to include an extremely important issue related to obesity. Television has significantly promoted the sedentary lifestyle in some children. There is not much research done in explicitly showing the relation between sedentary lifestyle like prolonged television watching and obesity and this is the basic reason for my conducting this research. I will use questionnaires for carrying out the research.

The whole process will be based on one month which includes contacting people and distributing questionnaires. Introduction Obesity results when excessive fat accumulates in the body and this clinical situation may occur due to myriad reasons. The research will focus on questions like has prolonged television watching really added to the other risk factors involved in causing obesity in children? Can the probability of obesity in children be decreased by proper education, diet control, and exercise?

Obesity has been also known to aggravate depression and develop low self-esteem in youngsters. Can the parents play any important role in reducing the psychological negativity associated with obesity by encouraging their children? Increased TV watching alone is strongly associated with abnormal weight gain and even diabetes. Literature review Statistics from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) (cited in Kaufman, 2003) reveal that one-fourth of children in America watch television for four hours or more daily and only 27 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 show any interest in moderate physical activity at least 30 minutes a day for even five days, let alone one whole week.

According to the study of CDC, US is home to almost 219 million television sets, with the result that where other technological mediums like computers and video games have their share in promoting sedentary life style and hence obesity in youngsters, no medium is more prevalent throughout the US then television. The major solution to this problematic issue is properly and satisfactorily making the children aware of the benefits of regular physical exercise. Hu (2003) conducted a research study finally coming to the result that owing to the promotion of the sedentary lifestyle in Americans, obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic proportions almost everywhere.

Diabetes is closely associated with obesity, which shows that excessive TV watching do not only promote one disease, rather this lifestyle is reflective of many clinical problems. Hu (2003) claims in the study that obesity is not an outcome of only decreased physical activity, rather it more often results because of prolonged TV watching. This situation demands that more campaigns should be organized to convince the children about eliminating such an attitude from their lives. Methodology I shall visit parents at homes and teachers and children at school to distribute the questionnaires.

I shall conduct a comparative research based on results received from children who engaged in increased physical activity watching less TV and those who preferred to do otherwise. I shall collect data and statistics and shall organize them in charts and tables. Results as Predicted I predict that the results will prove to be useful in giving an exact idea about what percentage of children are aware of the hazards related to excessive TV watching and what percentage is absolutely ignorant despite the awareness programmes held in the schools.

References Hu, F. B. (2003). Sedentary lifestyle and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. LIPIDS, 38, 103-108. Kaufman, R. (2003). Television, Diet and Advertising: Why Watching TV Makes You Fat. Retrieved from http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/junkfood.html