New exercise link to asthma
Young children who spend more than two hours a day watching television double their risk of developing asthma, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Glasgow tracked the respiratory health of more than 3,000 children from birth to 11-and-a-half years of age. The parents were sent questionnaires annually regarding their children's television habits from the age of three-and-a-half and on whether their child was showing any symptoms of wheezing.
The study, which is published in Thorax, a British Medical Journal publication, found that 6 per cent of children who had no asthmatic symptoms when they were three- and-a-half had developed asthma by the age of 11 and-a-half. Children who had no symptoms from birth and who were reported to watch more than two hours of television per day at the age of three- and-a-half were twice as likely to have developed asthma by the age of 11-and-a-half.
The researchers chose the duration of television watching as a measure of sedentary behaviour, after other studies concluded that the breathing patterns associated with sedentary behaviour could lead to developmental changes in the lungs and wheezing illnesses in children. Other reports have suggested a link between being overweight or obese and having asthma.
The findings add to a wealth of evidence linking a lack of exercise and being overweight with an increased risk of asthma, but this study is the first to directly link sedentary behaviour at a very young age to a higher risk of asthma later in childhood.
Dr Elaine Vickers, research relations manager at charity Asthma UK, said, 'This study does not suggest that watching television directly causes asthma, but uses the amount of time children spend in front of the television as an indication of how much time they spend sitting down rather than running around.
'We have one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the world, so it is especially important that parents in the UK try to prise their kids away from the TV and encourage them to lead an active lifestyle.'
