{"id":8152,"date":"2017-04-18T08:46:30","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T12:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=8152"},"modified":"2017-05-16T09:13:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T13:13:04","slug":"dartmouth-research-finds-link-between-fast-food-ads-and-fast-food-consumption-among-pre-school-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2017\/dartmouth-research-finds-link-between-fast-food-ads-and-fast-food-consumption-among-pre-school-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Dartmouth Research Finds Link Between Fast-food Ads and Fast-food Consumption Among Pre-school Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

HANOVER, NH - Pre-school age children who are exposed to child-targeted fast-food advertising on television are considerably more likely to consume fast-food products, according to a recent Dartmouth-led study<\/a> published in the journal Public Health Nutrition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the greatest exposure to food advertising in the US for children aged 2-11 years comes from fast-food restaurant chains. In 2009, the fast-food industry spent more than $580 million on child-targeted marketing, with television being the predominant medium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, children\u2019s consumption of fast food is associated with increased intakes of calories, fat and sugar, making fast-food consumption an important risk factor for obesity and other health problems,\u201d says Madeline Dalton, PhD, lead author on the study, who is a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine and a researcher at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. \u201cWe also know that dietary practices that are formed early in life are carried throughout adolescence and adulthood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study is the first research conducted in a community setting to demonstrate a significant positive association between child-directed fast-food TV ads and increased consumption of fast food among children of pre-school age.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost parents won\u2019t be surprised by the study\u2019s findings since they probably know this from observing their own children, and the results are also consistent with food marketing influences that have been observed in highly controlled laboratory settings,\u201d Dalton says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s significant about this study is we\u2019re using scientific methods we\u2019ve developed over the past two decades to measure media and advertising exposure in an objective way, so that the findings are generalizable to real life and we\u2019re able to control for influences that we know are important\u2014like parents\u2019 fast-food consumption and the overall amount of TV that children watch,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In the nine-month study, the research team recruited a total of 548 parents who had a pre-school age child (average of 4.4 years) to complete a written survey during their visits to pediatric and women, infant, and children clinics in Southern New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Parents reported their child\u2019s viewing time, channels watched, and fast-food consumption during the past week. Their responses were combined with a list of fast-food commercials that were aired on kids\u2019 TV channels during that same period to calculate the children\u2019s exposure to child-targeted TV ads from three fast-food restaurant chains: McDonald\u2019s, Subway, and Wendy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s results show that:<\/p>\n