Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Name
Master of Medical Science (Physician Assistant)
Department
Physician Assistant; College of Health Sciences
First Advisor
Sadie Ermol
Abstract
Introduction: Childhood obesity has become an increasing problem in the US over the last decade. The long term consequences of childhood obesity include numerous comorbid conditions, increased need for medication in a younger population, and decreased quality of life for those children and young adults. Advertisements including those on television and those on internet computer games contribute to this rising epidemic in their push for children to continue consuming unhealthy fast food and other fatty unhealthy snacks. Recently some companies have tried to combat this and have developed healthier advertisements to attempt to sway children towards healthier food choices. However, not enough research has been done to affect policy change on a large scale and push the unhealthy advertisements out of children’s entertainment. This literature review strives to answer whether, in children younger than 12 years old, does the viewing of healthy foods in advertisements increase the likelihood of a child choosing healthier foods and provide a preventative measure for obesity, when compared with children who view unhealthy food advertisements?
Methods: A literature search strategy was performed using the databases pubmed and google scholar in November 2018. Seven articles total were selected based off the children’s ages, and the comparison of healthy versus unhealthy food ads. Furthermore, articles needed to not already be described as a “meta-analysis” or “systemic review”. The results from these articles were then compared to one another for a comprehensive review.
Results: The articles which were analyzed overall showed an increase in children choosing healthy foods when they were prompted with a healthy food advertisement as compared with a control of no food advertisement. However, it appears that when comparing an unhealthy advertisement to a healthy advertisement child were still more likely to choose an unhealthy food. The studies varied in the form of advertisement they used in that they either analyzed advergames (online computer games) or television advertisements. Despite the different form of advertisement data still overwhelmingly showed an increase in unhealthy eating choices when showed an unhealthy food ad and an increase in healthy eating choices when showed a healthy food ad. Only one of the studies analyzed was longitudinal and showed how these ads may impact children over time and this found no statistically significant data from the healthy advertisement group.
Discussion: Each study used for this literature review found a positive correlation between children viewing healthy food advertisements and an increase in healthy food choices as a snack. Each research design was different from one another and this led to some weaknesses in advertisement selection and recording methods for what the child ate. It was also seen that when comparing children who viewed the healthy ad to children who viewed the unhealthy ad there still were more children making unhealthy food choices. This indicates that a firm recommendation about policy change in the media cannot be gained from the current research on this topic.
Conclusion: Childhood obesity is a complex condition that cannot be contributed to just one cause. Unfortunately, in regards to media influence there is still much that needs to be researched in order to make real policy change regarding what children are consuming from advertisements. In order to truly recommend a policy change there would need to be more done to study the influences of media over time and compare child to child to determine how much of an impact is media really having, because if it is truly just a minuscule contributing factor than perhaps time is better focused on other avenues of prevention.
Recommended Citation
Rochowiak, Rebecca, "The effect of whether the viewing of healthy foods in advertisements increases the likelihood of a child choosing healthier foods and provide a preventative measure for obesity, when compared with children who view unhealthy food advertisements" (2020). Capstone Showcase. 5.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2020/pa/5
The effect of whether the viewing of healthy foods in advertisements increases the likelihood of a child choosing healthier foods and provide a preventative measure for obesity, when compared with children who view unhealthy food advertisements
Introduction: Childhood obesity has become an increasing problem in the US over the last decade. The long term consequences of childhood obesity include numerous comorbid conditions, increased need for medication in a younger population, and decreased quality of life for those children and young adults. Advertisements including those on television and those on internet computer games contribute to this rising epidemic in their push for children to continue consuming unhealthy fast food and other fatty unhealthy snacks. Recently some companies have tried to combat this and have developed healthier advertisements to attempt to sway children towards healthier food choices. However, not enough research has been done to affect policy change on a large scale and push the unhealthy advertisements out of children’s entertainment. This literature review strives to answer whether, in children younger than 12 years old, does the viewing of healthy foods in advertisements increase the likelihood of a child choosing healthier foods and provide a preventative measure for obesity, when compared with children who view unhealthy food advertisements?
Methods: A literature search strategy was performed using the databases pubmed and google scholar in November 2018. Seven articles total were selected based off the children’s ages, and the comparison of healthy versus unhealthy food ads. Furthermore, articles needed to not already be described as a “meta-analysis” or “systemic review”. The results from these articles were then compared to one another for a comprehensive review.
Results: The articles which were analyzed overall showed an increase in children choosing healthy foods when they were prompted with a healthy food advertisement as compared with a control of no food advertisement. However, it appears that when comparing an unhealthy advertisement to a healthy advertisement child were still more likely to choose an unhealthy food. The studies varied in the form of advertisement they used in that they either analyzed advergames (online computer games) or television advertisements. Despite the different form of advertisement data still overwhelmingly showed an increase in unhealthy eating choices when showed an unhealthy food ad and an increase in healthy eating choices when showed a healthy food ad. Only one of the studies analyzed was longitudinal and showed how these ads may impact children over time and this found no statistically significant data from the healthy advertisement group.
Discussion: Each study used for this literature review found a positive correlation between children viewing healthy food advertisements and an increase in healthy food choices as a snack. Each research design was different from one another and this led to some weaknesses in advertisement selection and recording methods for what the child ate. It was also seen that when comparing children who viewed the healthy ad to children who viewed the unhealthy ad there still were more children making unhealthy food choices. This indicates that a firm recommendation about policy change in the media cannot be gained from the current research on this topic.
Conclusion: Childhood obesity is a complex condition that cannot be contributed to just one cause. Unfortunately, in regards to media influence there is still much that needs to be researched in order to make real policy change regarding what children are consuming from advertisements. In order to truly recommend a policy change there would need to be more done to study the influences of media over time and compare child to child to determine how much of an impact is media really having, because if it is truly just a minuscule contributing factor than perhaps time is better focused on other avenues of prevention.