Adolescents Spend Sedentary Weekends

Teenagers in developed countries have a more and more sedentary behavior because of television, and the figures explode on weekends, a new study claims.

This part of the European HELENA study, focused on the prevalence of sedentary behavior in 3,278 teenagers - 1,537 boys and 1,741 girls aged between 12.5 and 17.5) in 10 European cities: Athens and Heraklion in Greece, Dortmund in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Lille in France, Pécs in Hungary, Rome in Italy, Stockholm in Sweden, Vienna in Austria, and Zaragoza in Spain.

The adolescents specified the time they spend every day in front of the TV set, computer and games consoles, the amount of time they were connected to the internet and the time they spent studying, outside school hours.

Scientists also took in count the availability of TVs, computers and consoles at home and in the teens' bedrooms, and the effects of watching over two hours of television a day.

Juan P. Rey-López, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR), told SINC that “a sedentary lifestyle has become one of the major public health problems in developed countries.”

“During the week, one-third of teenagers said they watched more than two hours of television per day, at weekends, this figure exceeds 60%.”

“Our findings support the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics not to put televisions in teenagers' bedrooms, in order to (theoretically) reduce the amount of time they spend watching the television,” said Rey-López.

“Having a games console or television in the bedroom triples the risk of exceeding the health recommendations to not spend more than two hours per day watching television.”

Still, having a computer limits this risk, the researcher explained.

Differences depending on sexes were noted and it seems that teenaged girls are more sedentary because of the time they spend studying and surfing the net, while boys' sedentariness is caused by playing video games.

These results were published in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, and according to a study published last month in the Journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, there is a connection between watching television and cardiometabolic health in adults, so abusive TV watching during leisure time is not recommended.