Reducing Television Viewing to Prevent Childhood Obesity

September 12, 2005 updated by: Stanford University
Randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of reducing television, videotape and video game use to prevent obesity, increase physical activity, improve physical fitness, and decrease dietary fat and calorie intake among third grade children in twelve ethnically-diverse elementary schools.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The United States has experienced dramatic increases in obesity among both children and adults. Population-based primary prevention may hold the greatest promise. Unfortunately, obesity prevention programs that have specifically attempted to reduce fat and calorie intake and increase physical activity have been relatively ineffective at reducing body fatness. As a result, there is a pressing need for innovative interventions to prevent obesity.

Children spend more time watching television and videotapes and playing video games than in any other activity except sleeping. As a result, there has been widespread speculation that television viewing might be one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children. This hypothesis has broad appeal, but has been difficult to validate. Epidemiological studies have consistently found weak associations between media use and childhood obesity, and additional epidemiological studies are unlikely to help clarify these relationships.

We propose an innovative experimental model. In the current environment, in which television viewing is already so prevalent, the question of greatest clinical, practical and policy importance is: Will reducing television, videotape and video game use prevent childhood obesity? As a foundation for this proposal, we have completed two pilot studies that demonstrate (1) it is possible to significantly reduce children's television, videotape and video game use and (2) that a school-based intervention to reduce children's television, videotape and video game use may result in clinically significant decreases in adiposity.

We propose a school-based randomized controlled trial involving 12 ethnically- and socioeconomically-diverse elementary schools and approximately 900 third graders. Six schools will be randomly assigned to receive an intervention to reduce television, videotape and video game use and the other six schools will receive an attention-placebo control intervention, to minimize the potential for compensatory rivalry or resentful demoralization. Our proposed intervention model is derived directly from principles of Bandura's social cognitive theory and includes a classroom curriculum and parent newsletters. The primary intervention will be delivered throughout the third grade school year.

Survey and physical assessments of all children will occur at baseline, at the end of 3rd grade (post-test) and at the beginning and end of 4th grade (4 month and one year follow-ups, respectively). A subsample of children will participate in 4 days of activity monitoring and three 24-hour dietary recalls at baseline, post-test and one-year follow-up. Parents will be interviewed by phone.

PRIMARY HYPOTHESIS: Compared to controls, third grade children exposed to a school-based intervention to reduce time spent watching television and videotapes and playing video games, will significantly reduce their body mass index (BMI, kg/m2). In addition, triceps skinfold thickness and waist and hip ratio will be measured to further characterize changes in obesity resulting from the intervention.

SECONDARY HYPOTHESES: Children attending intervention schools will significantly decrease the amount of time they spend watching television, watching videotapes and playing video games; Children attending intervention schools will significantly increase their levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity and total physical activity; Children attending intervention schools will significantly improve their physical fitness; Children attending intervention schools will significantly reduce their fat intakes and total calorie intakes; Children attending intervention schools will significantly reduce the number of meals and snacks they eat while watching television and videotapes or playing video games.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

900

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

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

  • United States
    • California
      • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
        • Stanford University School of Medicine

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

1 second and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All 3rd grade students attending the participating elementary schools.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to complete the study procedures

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: Single

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
body mass index

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
physical activity
waist circumference
dietary intake
prevalence/incidence of obesity
weight concerns
triceps skinfold thickness
screen time
cardiorespiratory fitness
academic performance

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Stanford University

Collaborators

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Thomas N. Robinson, MD, MPH, Stanford University

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.

General Publications

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

April 1, 1999

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 12, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 12, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 16, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 16, 2005

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 12, 2005

Last Verified

September 1, 2005

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R01HL062224 (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.

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