Childhood obesity risk increases with too much TV, not enough sleep

• Children addicted to television are prone to obesity, so are those who get less sleep, a study has found.
• Scientists who carried out the study have established that children spending more time in front of television and less time in their sleep can get weight gain problems.
• They have prepared a checklist and listed eight factors that are related to high risk of child obesity.
• The others are high birth weight, early size, rapid weight gain, quick growth in years one and two, early body fat and having obese parents.
• Dr John Reilly, of the University of Glasgow, who led the team of scientists, say: "Eight factors in early life are associated with an increased risk of obesity in childhood.
• He said that children at age of three start developing habits that can lead to overweight and obesity.
• The study covered more than 9,000 children of seven years' age, who have been under observation since their birth.
• Studies earlier have identified junk food and lifestyle as causes of obesity among the adolescents.
• The scientists believe that environment in which the child grows has a role in making him or her obese.
• "Prevention strategies for childhood obesity to date have usually been unsuccessful and typically focus on change in lifestyle during childhood or adolescence.
• Future interventions might focus on environmental changes targeted at relatively short periods in early life, attempting to modify factors in early childhood which are independently related to later risk of obesity," says the study.
• In the case of parental obesity, the risk can be through genes or through a predisposition towards certain types of food.
• The impact of sleep, similarly, is through growth hormone secretion, reduction in food intake in the evening or lack of physical activity.