Introduction

Obesity is a worldwide health issue, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that, across the globe, it has doubled since 1980.¹ In the United States in last 30 years, childhood obesity doubled, while there was a fourfold increase of obesity among adolescents.² About 1 in 6 American children between the ages of 2-19 years old are obese, with a greater effect on ethnic and racial minority groups.³ Children who are overweight between the ages of 2-5 years old were four times more likely to be overweight adults.⁴

Extensive research on the deleterious effects of obesity on a person’s health, both short- and long-term, indicates evidence of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.³ Obese children and adolescents have a higher risk for joint issues, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems like poor self-esteem.² They also have a higher chance of having pre-diabetes.² The rise in obesity and weight gain can be attributed to many things, including the cost and access to healthy food and the amount of time spent being active.

Children are an influence market because they have the power to impact family purchasing choices and are a future market because when they grow up they will be adult consumers.⁵ In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that 1.8 billion dollars were spent by 48 companies to advertise food and drinks to children in the United States.⁶ In 2006, the FTC noted that 44 food and drink companies spent $2.1 billion, which includes the “cost of fast-food restaurant toys,” to advertise to children as their target audience.⁶

Parenting magazines serve as a platform for advertisers to target children and their caregivers. Magazines, and the advertisements contained within them, serve as a vehicle to convey health information and possibly may influence numerous parents. The purpose of this study was to analyze and describe the number of pictures of sedentary and non-sedentary children pictured in the popular parenting magazine, Parents. This study did not involve human subjects, and was viewed as an exempt study by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at William Paterson University.

Materials and Methods

Results

There were a total of 11 018 children images reviewed. The overwhelming majority included sedentary children (n = 9734, 88.3%), while the minority showed children engaged in some kind of activity (n = 1284, 11.7%). Table 1 shows the frequency and percentage of advertisements by year, which followed a general downward trend from 2010 to 2015. However, no significant difference in frequency of either sedentary or active children was noted over six years of observations.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the images in a popular US based magazine for parents. Results indicated that children were often depicted as being sedentary, a contributing factor to obesity. A review of literature has found that children and adolescents who are overweight or obese have an increased likelihood of being overweight or obese as adults.¹⁰ A contributing factor that is significantly linked to predictive obesity is extended hours of sedentary behaviors.¹¹ Most US children do not get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity,¹² and nearly half of US children exceed the recommended two hours of sedentary behavior, including watching TV or playing video games.¹¹

Children and adolescents are heavily influenced by their family, friends, and peers, and model their behaviors, sedentary included, based on exposure.¹³ In turn, parents can be heavily influenced by images that are depicted in magazines they read, TV programs they see, or movies they watch. Parents’ magazines are often the primary places where parents get exposed to advertising and countless images. As parents play a critical role in developing children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviors, supporting and encouraging parents through media advertisements can help to reduce the amount of time children stay sedentary. While most advertising companies design their marketing campaigns by portraying children who are physically active, brilliant, fun, and so on, to encourage parents to buy that specific product.¹⁴ However, we found that the majority of children pictured in this particular magazine were sedentary.

This study is limited by the cross-sectional design, and the fact that there was a single coder. Despite these limitations, this study fills a gap in literature regarding portrayal of activeness among children in a popular US based parenting magazine. Future studies can examine the extent to which this is a global phenomenon. Parents are encouraged to discuss with their pediatricians which activities are most beneficial for their children’s health.

Ethical Approval

The human subjects committee at William Paterson University does not review studies that do not involve human subjects, such as this project.

Competing interests

There is no conflict of interest.

References

1. World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity and Overweight. Available from:http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ [cited 10 April 2016].
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Childhood obesity facts. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm. 2015. [cited 10 April 2016].
3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. What are the Health Risks of Overweight and Obesity? Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/risks. 2012. [cited 8 April 2016].
4. Freedman DS, Zuguo M, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS, Dietz WH. Cardiovascular risk factors and excess adiposity among overweight children and adolescents: The Bogalusa Heart Study. J Pediatr 2007;150(1):12-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2006.08.042. [Crossref]
5. Boulos R, Vikre EK, Oppenheimer S, Chang H, Kanarek RB. ObesiTV: how television is influencing the obesity epidemic. Physiol Behav 2012;107(1):146-53. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2012.05.022. [Crossref]
6. Powell LM, Harris JL, Fox T. Food marketing expenditures aimed at youth. putting the numbers in context. Am J Prev Med 2013;45(4):453-61. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2013.06.003. [Crossref]
7. Meredith Direct Media. Parents fact sheet. Available from: http://meredithdirectmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/02_Fact-Sheets_PAR.pdf. 2015. [cited 11 March 2016].
8. Meredith Direct Media. Parents rates card. Available from: http://meredithdirectmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/05_Rate-Card_PAR.pdf. 2015. [cited 11 March 2016].
9. Basch CH, Hillyer GC, Basch CE. Descriptive analysis of articles and advertisements pertaining to skin care and skin cancer prevention in two popular parenting magazines, 2000-2010. Prev Chronic Dis 2013;4(10):E48. doi: 10.5888/pcd10.120200. [Crossref]
10. Singh AS, Mulder C, Twisk JW, Van Mechelen W, Chinapaw MJ. Tracking of childhood overweigh into adulthood: a systematic review of literature. Obesity Review 2008;9(5):474-88. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2008.00475.x. [Crossref]
11. Sisson S, Church T, Martin C, Tudor-Locke C, Smith S, Bouchard C, et al. Profiles of sedentary behavior in children and adolescents: The US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2006. Int J Pediatr Obes. 2009;4(4):353-9. Doi: 10.3109/17477160902934777. [Crossref]
12. Troiano RP, Berrigan D, Dodd KW, Mâsse LC, Tilert T, McDowell M. Physical activity in the United States measured by accelerometer. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2008;40(1):181-8.
13. Granich J, Rosenberg M, Knuiman M, Timperio, A. Understanding children’s sedentary behaviour: a qualitative study of the family home environment. Health Educ Res. 2010:25(2);199-210. doi: 10.1093/her/cyn025. [Crossref]
14. Murad K, Saahar S, Halim AA. Does cuteness sell? A content analytic study of children portrayal in press advertisement. In: Hashim R, Abdul Majeed AB, eds. Proceedings of the Colloquium on Administrative Science and Technology. Springer; 2014. p. 29-40. doi: 10.1007/978-981-4585-45-3_4. [Crossref]