Research ArticleExposure to Child-Directed TV Advertising and Preschoolers’ Intake of Advertised Cereals
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Ready-to-eat, high-sugar breakfast cereals (SBCs) are heavily advertised on children's TV.1, 2, 3 More than $102 million is spent annually marketing SBCs to children on TV.1 Despite manufacturers’ claims that the nutritional quality of foods advertised to children on TV is high,4 the most frequently advertised SBCs exceed recommended sugar limits and thus fail to meet accepted nutrient standards.2, 3
Child-directed TV advertisements are designed to attract children's attention with animation,
Study Sample
Participants were recruited (March 2014–October 2015) from community-based sites in two cities in New Hampshire, U.S., including pediatric outpatient clinics, federal assistance clinics, child care centers, and community and recreational events. Facebook and participant referrals were also used for recruitment.
Eligibility criteria included children aged 3–5 years, no condition significantly impacting food intake, and living with parent ≥3 days/week or every other week; parent literacy
RESULTS
Mean age of children was 4.3 (SD=0.8) years, 44.7% were male, and 85.3% were white, non-Hispanic. Nearly all (98.4%) participants enrolled at baseline completed one of the six follow-up surveys; 579 (92.8%) completed the final survey. At baseline, 60.4% of children consumed at least one of the ten advertised SBCs. In unadjusted Poisson models (Table 1), any SBC intake over the study was more likely among racial/ethnic minorities and children attending child care/school, and intake was
DISCUSSION
In this observational study of 624 preschool-age children, exposure to child-directed TV advertisements for specific SBC brands was associated with the intake of those brands prospectively over 1 year, independent of sociodemographic and child characteristics. Children with the most sustained advertisement exposure (i.e., recent [within the past week] and past [prior to the past week] combined) were at the greatest risk of any intake and also had a greater mean frequency of intake of advertised
CONCLUSIONS
This study extends previous research by documenting significant, prospective effects of brand-specific SBC TV advertisement exposure on children's SBC intake in a natural setting. Findings provide support for the recommendations of WHO42 and others to restrict child-directed marketing of high-sugar foods, and indicate that stronger restrictions are needed to limit exposure to advertisements for SBCs specifically among children under the age of 6 years.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by NIH, grant number R01HD071021.
NIH had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Drs. Longacre, Titus, Hendricks, MacKenzie, and Dalton contributed to the conception and design of the study. Drs. Longacre, Titus, Hendricks, Carroll, Cleveland, Langeloh, and Dalton acquired the data. Drs. Emond,
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Request for comments
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