DOES TELEVISION AFFECT TEENAGERS FOOD CHOICES

Objective: To explore whether food choices are linked to the extent of television watching among teenagers. Design: A representative state-w ide sample of zest junior high school students (aged 12-15 gears) was surveyed cross-sectionally in Tasmania, Australia. Respondents complet ed a printed questionnaire, which asked inter alia how much time subje cts spent watching television how frequently they consumed each of 22 foods, their socio-demographic characteristics and their local dietary milieu (i.e. the frequency of usage of each food by parents and frien ds). Results: Respondents watched television for an average of 3.3 h p er day (s.d. 1.9 h). For 18 of the 22 foods, there was a significant ( P<0.01) linear relation between hours of television watched per day an d frequency of consumption of the food. For 10 of the 22 foods, it rem ained significant even after the addition of several predictor variabl es reflecting socio-demographic characteristics and the frequency of c onsumption of the food by parents and friends. Students who watched te levision more extensively tended to eat 'healthy' foods less often and 'unhealthy' foods more often. Conclusion: The results suggest possibl e dietary explanations for previous reports linking television watchin g to obesity and hypercholesterolaemia. In addition, they suggest that a high level of television watching might be a useful screening indic ator of an unhealthy diet.