Television advertising and classes of food products consumed in a paediatric population

The purpose of this study is to look for associations between the following: the frequency of television advertising for certain categories of food products; the number of times they are requested by children; and subsequent purchases by parents. The study design consisted of a cross-analysis of two sets of existing and published databases, one being an independent study of television advertising where data were collected in 1993, and the other being the Study of Children's Activity and Nutrition, with data collected in 1991. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between foods advertised on television during common child viewing hours and foods children requested was 0.91 (p <0.0001). The correlation coefficient between foods advertised on television and foods purchased because they were requested by children after television viewing was 0.94 (p < 0.0001). The authors conclude that certain classes of foods are requested by children and purchased by parents in the same frequency they are adve...