Trajectories of Television Watching from Childhood to Early Adulthood and Their Association with Body Composition and Mental Health Outcomes in Young Adults.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Prior studies examining longitudinal patterns of television (TV) watching have tended to use analytical approaches which do not allow for heterogeneity in the variation of TV watching over time. In the current study, we used latent class analysis (LCA) to examine the relationships between television watching (from childhood to early adulthood) and body fat percentage (%) and mental health.

Methods

Data were collected from 2411 participants (50% female) from the Raine Study, a prospective birth cohort study in Australia. Participants were followed up over 15 years and answered questions about hours of TV watching per week at six time-points (5, 8, 10, 14, 17 and 20yrs). Trajectories of television watching were estimated using LCA and appropriate regression models

SUBMITTER: McVeigh J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4838324 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature