TV-viewing pushes up blood pressure in children

Watching TV is worse for kids than playing video games, using the computer and reading, according to a new study that examines the link between blood pressure in children and their choice of inactive pastimes, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the website of the U.S. publication Time. It’s no secret that sedentary behavior contributes to obesity and chronically poor health. But not all sedentary behaviors are created equal. Researchers in the U.S. and Spain collaborated on the study of 111 children ages 3 to 8 and found that of all the forms of inactivity they examined, television-viewing was the worst. It was linked to significantly higher blood pressure in children — the more TV kids watched, the higher their blood pressure — and the effect held true regardless of whether a child was heavy or at a healthy weight. What’s more, other sedentary behaviors, like using a computer, were not associated with similar blood-pressure hikes, according to the study. The children were sedentary for five hours each day, and 1.5 of those hours were spent in front of a TV, computer or video game, on average. Kids watching from 90 to 330 minutes of television each day had systolic and diastolic blood-pressure readings (the two numbers that indicate pressure caused by blood pumping from the top and bottom chambers of the heart, respectively) that were five to seven points higher than those of children watching less than half an hour of television a day. Playing games and using computers involve some movement, like fidgeting or changing body positions. Beyond the complete inactivity involved with TV-viewing — which alone raises the risk of high blood pressure — children may be compounding their sloth by eating junk food. Emergency Hospital doctor Svetlana Prepelita considers that both TV-viewing and the use of the computer seriously damage children’s health. “The child obsessed by TV and computer becomes hyperactive, more nervous, can cry faster than other children or get into a fight. The states of nervousness are most often caused by thriller movies that they like to watch on the TV or computer for a long time. This can lead to mental illnesses of which even the parents are not aware,” the doctor said.