TV in Kids' Bedrooms Carries Health Risks, Study Finds

"Specifically, youngsters ages 5 to 18 who had TVs in their rooms were up to 2.5 times more likely than others to have bigger waists and more fat mass. Those who watched TV more than five hours a day were at twice the risk for fat around their internal organs, a dangerous precursor for disease.

"It's really troubling to see these kids with fat around their heart and liver," said Amanda Staiano, a scientist with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

Staiano and her colleagues knew that previous studies had shown a link among bedroom TVs, longer TV viewing and being overweight or obese, which affects two-thirds of U.S. youth. But in a country where 70 percent of kids have TVs in their rooms, according to a 2010 study, Staiano said they wanted to understand exactly where the kids were adding fat, and whether they were at risk for conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

"We wanted to see kind of a more precise relationship between TV and health," said Stainao, who studied 369 children and teens in Louisiana. Her findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

They took the kids' height, weight and waist measurements, logged their blood pressure, analyzed their blood and examined the fat deposits in their bodies using special scanners, among other exams.

Nearly 66 percent of the young people in the study had TVs in their rooms and about a third watched at least five hours of TV a day. There wasn't a distinction by age, so even the youngest kids -- 5-year-olds -- had their own TVs, Staiano said.

Those with bedroom TVs had the higher odds for being in the top tiers of kids with extra belly fat, bigger waists, greater risk of heart disease and diabetes and elevated triglycerides, or fat in their bloodstream.

While Stainano's study couldn't say whether bedroom TV and long hours in front of the screen actually causes the extra fat and disease risk, it renews the debate about whether TVs should be allowed in kids' rooms at all.

The American Academy of Pediatrics frowns on the practice, saying children's TV viewing should be limited to less than two hours a day, ideally in a central location with parents watching, too."