TV or Not TV: Fat Is the Question

The manuscript entitled "Does television viewing increase obesity and reduce physical activity?" published by Robinson and coauthors in this issue of Pediatrics1 is a careful and well-written study of the effect of television viewing on adiposity and physical activity among sixth- and seventh-grade adolescent girls. In contrast to two other large studies of children,2,3 the authors failed to find a significant association between hours of television viewed and adiposity, measured by body mass index. Physical activity was weakly and inversely correlated to time spent viewing television. The latter observation is consistent with prior data which demonstrate a reciprocal relationship of fitness and television viewing,4 perhaps because television viewing displaces more vigorous physical activities.5