BACKGROUND There is growing interest in understanding the role that lifestyle behaviors play in relation to children's weight status. The objective of the study was to determine the association between children s BMI and dietary practices and maternal BMI. METHODS 330 students (168M) aged 8.9 + 2 y from 4 suburban Buenos Aires elementary schools, and their mothers aged 36.2 + 7 y were examine...

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Exposure to alcohol advertising is associated with greater alcohol consumption in children and adolescents, and alcohol advertising is common in Australian sport. We examine child, adolescent and young adult exposure to alcohol advertising during three televised sports in Australia: Australian Football League (AFL), cricket and the National Rugby League (NRL). METHODS Al...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Associations of inadequate sleep with numerous health outcomes among youth necessitate identifying its modifiable determinants. Television (TV) has been associated with sleep curtailment, but little is known about small screens (eg, smartphones), which can be used in bed and emit notifications. Therefore, we examined associations of different screens in sleep environmen...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether exposure to child-targeted fast-food (FF) television (TV) advertising is associated with children's FF intake in a non-experimental setting. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey conducted April-December 2013. Parents reported their pre-school child's TV viewing time, channels watched and past-week FF consumption. Responses were combined with a list of FF commercials (a...

BACKGROUND The inclusion of toys in food packages is a common marketing practice, and it is suspected of promoting obesogenic behaviours. This study aimed to determine whether toys packaged with food are indeed increasing the amount of food eaten by children, and if this effect is enhanced by contemporary exposure to TV and/or advertising. METHODS A total of 600 children (balanced according t...

BACKGROUND Cardio-metabolic risk factors are becoming more prevalent in children and adolescents. A lack of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) is an established determinant of cardio-metabolic risk factors in children and adolescents. Less is known about the relationship between sedentary behavior and cardio-metabolic health. Therefore, the objective was to examine the inde...

The immune response elicited by the rotavirus nonstructural protein NSP4 and its potential role in protection against rotavirus disease are not well understood. We investigated the serological response to NSP4 and its correlation with disease protection in sera from 110 children suffering acute diarrhea, associated or not with rotavirus, and from 26 children who were recipients of the rhesus ro...

BACKGROUND Children's screen viewing (SV) is associated with higher levels of childhood obesity. Many children exceed the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline of 2 hours of television (TV) per day. There is limited information about how parenting styles and parental self-efficacy to limit child screen time are associated with children's SV. This study examined whether parenting styles were ...

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed their official policy discouraging screen media use with children under two (AAP, 2011). Their statement counters the normative use of TV/ video products with infants and toddlers, as parent surveys indicate the majority of these children watch TV/videos regularly. This dissertation research was designed with the underlying premise that th...