Modifying the Home Television Watching Environment

The purpose of this study is to determine if limiting television (TV) and computer time will result in a stabilization or smaller increase in body mass index (BMI), lower energy intake, and increased physical activity in 4-7 year old obese (>85th BMI percentile) children over two years.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

There is a positive correlation between obesity and television watching in adults and children. And, television watching, controlling for current obesity, is a predictor of future obesity. Almost half of all children watch 3 or more hours of television each day. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children watch no more than 1-2 hours each day.

Families will be randomized to one of two conditions. Half the families will be taught to use the TV Allowance to reduce their child's TV and computer use by one-half over a six month period and the other half will use the device to monitor TV watching (control group). This study uses TV Allowance units to monitor home television watching, video game playing, and computer use. The TV Allowance can also be used to limit the amount of TV and computer use by programming it to allow a specific number of hours for each family member. Heights, weights, food intake, and physical activity will be measured at baseline and every six months. The purpose of this study is to determine if limiting television and computer time will result in a stabilization or smaller increase in BMI, lower energy intake, and increased physical activity in 4-7 year old obese (>85th BMI percentile) children over two years.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

70

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • New York
      • Buffalo, New York, United States, 14214
        • University at Buffalo

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

4 years to 7 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

  • Greater than the 85th BMI percentile
  • Minimum of 15 hours of TV watching, computer use, and video game playing per week
  • No medical conditions that may affect the child's ability to safely participate in physical activity

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Leonard H. Epstein, Ph.D., State Universtiy of New York at Buffalo, Department of Pediatrics

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2002

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 16, 2003

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2003

First Posted (Estimate)

July 18, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 13, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 12, 2010

Last Verified

January 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MODHTV (completed)
  • 1R01DK063442 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Obesity

Clinical Trials on Behavior modification

Subscribe