Publicidad televisiva y preferencias alimentarias en escolares de la Región Metropolitana / Television advertising and food preferences of school age children of the Región Metropolitana

RESUMO

Background: There is an alarming increase in the prevalence of child obesity in Chile. Lack of exercise and bad feeding habits strongly contribute to the problem. Aim: To investigate the influence of television publicity on school age children food preferences. Material and methods: A semi structured interview was applied to a representative sample of 786 school age children aged 6 to 11 years old, living in Metropolitan Santiago. Time watching television during week days and the attitude towards food and beverage commercials was analyzed and related to food preferences. Results: Ninety nine percent of school age children watch television during week days and 20 percent watches more the three hours daily. Snack commercials such as those about potato chips, chocolates, cookies and ice cream, are preferred by 35 percent of children. Soda commercials are preferred by 33 percent and yoghurt commercials by 12 percent. Eighty five percent of children had money to buy food. Of these, 66 percent bought snacks, 15 percent bought sodas and 7 percent yoghurt. The same tendency was observed in school collations. Conclusions: The high percentage of children watching television and the influence of commercials in their food preferences, requires an urgent educational strategy to promote healthy feeding habits