Less T.V. and More Sleep may Help Minority Children Lose Weight

Childhood obesity continues to be a widespread problem throughout the United States as the government and health agencies work on improving healthier lifestyles in order to curb the potential epidemic. As the majority of individuals know that if they eat right and exercise regularly, they can effectively lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle, researchers note that it's getting individuals to follow these simple tasks in which the problem often arises. Consumerism doesn't make it any easier for children when sugary drinks and popular cartoons that promote a sedentary lifestyle may prevent them from making the right choices.

Fortunately, researchers from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, took a more in-depth look at the probably, particularly among families who were at a higher risk for obesity. 

"The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which a home-based intervention, compared with a mailed control condition focused on healthful development, resulted in improvements in household routines that may be preventive of childhood overweight and obesity among racial/ethnic minority and low-income families with children aged two to five years," the authors explained, via a press release.

Lead study author Jess Haines, Ph.D., M.H.SC., from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, examined 121 families who were identified as a high-risk group for obesity, focusing in particular on low-income minoriti4es. The researchers randomly assigned the children-parent pairings to either an intervention group or control group, with a total number of 111 pairings: Sixty-two in the intervention group and 59 in the control group, all of which went through a six-month follow-up.

The intervention group utilized home-based counseling and phone calls in order to help reduce the risks of excess weight gain among families. The actual weight of the children, however, was not directly addressed. The control group only received education materials, and researchers discovered that participants from the intervention group only experienced a 0.75 hours/day increase in sleep duration. Background information from the study also showed a decrease of 1.06 hours/day spent watching television and a decrease of 0.40 in Body Mass Index (BMI). The study authors believe that there could be a definite link between a better night's rest along with less time spent in front of the television that could help lead children on a successful path to weight loss and healhier lifestyle choices.

"In summary, after six months, we found that the Healthy Habits, Happy Homes intervention improved sleep duration and TV viewing behaviors, as well as decreased BMI among racially/ethnically diverse children from low-income households. Future studies with longer follow-up are needed to determine maintenance of these behavior changes," the authors wrote.

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More information regarding the study can be found via JAMA Pediatrics.