Impact of media on the physical health of urban school children of age group 11-17yrs in Chennai - A cross sectional study

A cross sectional study was done to investigate the impact of media on the physical health of adolescents in Chennai. Media usage was found tobe highly influencing factor for the physical health of adolescents. The sample comprised of 448school students in the age range of 11-17. A semi structured questionnaire was used to get information. The results revealed that 90% of the participants eat while watching TV. 33% eat fast foods at least once a week. 82% buy food products based on advertisements and 59% skipped some outdoor activity for TV. 42% diet&42% exercise to get the body like their favorite media personality. The Chi square test resulted significant associations of BMI vs the variables such as eating fast foods(p 0.027),frequency of outdoor play(p 0.019),eating while watching TV(p 0.037),dieting for changing the body image like their favorite media person(p 0.033),skipped some outdoor activity for TV(p 0.018). Further regression analysis was carried out for BMI interval and other related media usage variables and it suggested that the odds of media usage as a predicting factor for BMI are increased 2-3 units. Thus the Study concluded that educating adolescents to use media on time and constructively will improve their health holistically.