Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Short Communication
  • Published:

Television viewing, physical inactivity and obesity

International Journal of Obesity volume 23, pages 437–440 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between TV viewing and three year change in BMI among a community-based sample of 176 men, 428 high-income women and 277 low-income women who were aged 20–45 years at baseline. Cross-sectionally, TV viewing was positively associated with BMI among women, but not among men. This relationship was strongest among low-income women, with only a marginal relationship among high-income women. There were no significant relationships between change in BMI and number of hours of TV viewing at baseline, average number of hours of TV viewing over the three year follow-up, or change in number of hours of TV viewing from baseline to three years. These findings suggest the link between obesity and TV viewing is complex, and that TV viewing may not be the simple marker of sedentariness we may have hoped.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Deakin University, Australia

    DA Crawford

  2. Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, USA

    RW Jeffery & SA French

Authors
  1. DA Crawford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. RW Jeffery
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. SA French
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crawford, D., Jeffery, R. & French, S. Television viewing, physical inactivity and obesity. Int J Obes 23, 437–440 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0800845

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0800845

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links