The effect of Junk Food Advertising on Obesity in Children Essay

The effect of Junk Food Advertising on Obesity in Children - Essay Example Mother - 103 Children (10-15 years) - 52 Information areas The key information areas covered in the research were From the mother Various activities for the child in a day Television watching habits Preference of foods Parental control in the intake of food Factors that influence choice of food and reasons for obesity Role of various bodies in controlling obesity in children Reaction to the proposal for ban on advertisements of unhealthy food Opinion of the advertisements for unhealthy foods Demographic details - gender, age of child, economic status of the family, weight of the selected child From the selected child Preference for specific foods Food which are considered healthy Reasons for consumption of 'junk food' Intention to reduce consumption of 'junk foods' and reasons ascribed to it. Analysis The data was analysed to look at the mothers of all children and specifically understand differences between habits and practices of the children in the younger age group and the older age group - these differences have been mentioned in the findings and the tables in the appendix. the girls and the boys - there were no differences which emerged among the boys and the girls at an overall level The questions asked to the children in the age group of 10 to 15 years were analysed separately. Key findings - among mothers 1. Activities undertaken and time spent There were a fair number of activities undertaken by children. Watching television, was the only activity that obtained 100% mentions other than sleeping, eating and going to school. About of the mothers claimed that their children also did some physical activity and participated in sports, cycling etc. This percentage was significantly higher among the younger children in the age...The details of the survey have been summarised below Given that the link between television watching and obesity have been much talked about, there is a need to understand whether this link exists or not. There is also a need to understand from the children, the drivers and motivators for eating fast foods and foods that have high fat content. There were a fair number of activities undertaken by children. Watching television, was the only activity that obtained 100% mentions other than sleeping, eating and going to school. About of the mothers claimed that their children also did some physical activity and participated in sports, cycling etc. This percentage was significantly higher among the younger children in the age group of 4 to 9 years. The average time spent on television was more than 3 hours among the younger group and about 4.3 hours among the older group which was significantly higher than the younger children. In contrast to this the average time spent on any kind of a physical activity was as low as 1.4 and 1.7 hours respectively.