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Too much TV can double risk of asthma
Source: Agencies |
March 4, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
CHILDREN who watch television for more than two hours a day have twice the risk of developing asthma, British researchers said yesterday.
Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is the most common children's chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.
A study published in the journal Thorax may help link asthma, estimated to account for one in 250 deaths globally each year, to obesity and lack of exercise, experts said.
"There has been a recent suggestion that breathing patterns associated with sedentary behavior could lead to developmental changes in the lungs and wheezing illnesses in children," Andrea Sherriff of the University of Glasgow and colleagues wrote.
Sherriff and colleagues studied more than 3,000 children from birth until they were almost 12.
The parents were questioned annually on wheezing symptoms among their children and whether a doctor had diagnosed asthma as they grew up. The researchers also analysed how much television the children watched.
They did not consider video games or personal computers, which were not as common in the mid 1990s when the children were growing up, the researchers added.
The study found that 6 percent of children at around age 12 who had no symptoms of the disease growing up had asthma. But children who watched television more than two hours a day were almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with the condition as those who watched less.
In some countries as many as 30 percent of children develop asthma, according to the World Health Association.
Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is the most common children's chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.
A study published in the journal Thorax may help link asthma, estimated to account for one in 250 deaths globally each year, to obesity and lack of exercise, experts said.
"There has been a recent suggestion that breathing patterns associated with sedentary behavior could lead to developmental changes in the lungs and wheezing illnesses in children," Andrea Sherriff of the University of Glasgow and colleagues wrote.
Sherriff and colleagues studied more than 3,000 children from birth until they were almost 12.
The parents were questioned annually on wheezing symptoms among their children and whether a doctor had diagnosed asthma as they grew up. The researchers also analysed how much television the children watched.
They did not consider video games or personal computers, which were not as common in the mid 1990s when the children were growing up, the researchers added.
The study found that 6 percent of children at around age 12 who had no symptoms of the disease growing up had asthma. But children who watched television more than two hours a day were almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with the condition as those who watched less.
In some countries as many as 30 percent of children develop asthma, according to the World Health Association.
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