Obesity prevention may begin with maternal TV viewing while pregnant

Pregnant women who watched television while eating are more likely to allow their infants to do the same, possibly laying the ground for a poor relationship with media and food and going against obesity prevention guidelines, according to study results presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.

“These patterns of TV viewing seem like they persist, and having better habits during pregnancy seems like it’s associated with having better habits once the baby is born,” Mary Jo Messito, MD, of the NYU Langone Medical Center, told Endocrine Today. “If you are able to change your mealtime viewing during pregnancy, it’s a good idea because healthier patterns will continue through.”

The longitudinal cohort analysis looked at baseline and 3-month data from the Starting Early study, a randomized controlled trial looking at early childhood obesity prevention efforts in low socioeconomic status Hispanic families. The survey asked pregnant women how often they watched TV during mealtimes and, at the infant’s 3-month assessment, asked the mother how often the baby watched television while feeding.

The data showed that 71% of pregnant women watched television while eating and 33% of infants were exposed to television while feeding, but the adjusted OR for infant exposure to television was 5.56 (95% CI, 2.14-14.47) for mothers who watched television during mealtime. Additionally, mothers aged 25 years or younger were more likely to expose their infants to television during feedings (adjusted OR=3.27; 95% CI, 1.46-7.3), whereas mothers who breast-fed were less likely to expose their infants (adjusted OR=0.33; 95% CI, 0.13-0.86) to television during feedings.

According to Messito, the researchers will be following these mother-child dyads until the infants reach age 3 year and are hoping to extend beyond that. In a press release, she said this data and any resulting reduction in maternal television viewing could play an important role in childhood obesity prevention.

“TV viewing is associated with obesity, and it’s a linear relationship in all child age groups,” Messito told Endocrine Today. — by Katrina Altersitz

For more information:

Diaz K. Platform presentation #4670.2. Presented at: Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research joint meeting; May 3-6, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia.

Disclosure: The study was supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Child Obesity Prevention: Integrated Research, Education and Extension to Prevent Childhood Obesity.