Adolescent television viewing and unhealthy snack food consumption: the mediating role of home availability of unhealthy snack foods

Objective
To examine whether home availability of energy-dense snack foods mediates the association between television (TV) viewing and energy-dense snack consumption among adolescents.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Setting
Secondary schools in Victoria, Australia.
Subjects
Adolescents (n 2984) from Years 7 and 9 of secondary school completed a web-based survey, between September 2004 and July 2005, assessing their energy-dense snack food consumption, school-day and weekend-day TV viewing and home availability of energy-dense snack foods.
Results
School-day and weekend-day TV viewing were positively associated with energy-dense snack consumption among adolescent boys (β = 0·003, P < 0·001) and girls (β = 0·03, P < 0·001). Furthermore, TV viewing (school day and weekend day) were positively associated with home availability of energy-dense snack foods among adolescent boys and girls and home availability of energy-dense snack foods was positively associated with energy-dense snack food consumption among boys (β = 0·26, P < 0·001) and girls (β = 0·28, P < 0·001). Home availability partly mediated the association between TV viewing and energy-dense snack consumption.
Conclusions
The results of the present study suggest that TV viewing has a significant role to play in adolescent unhealthy eating behaviours. Future research should assess the efficacy of methods to reduce adolescent energy-dense snack food consumption by targeting parents to reduce home availability of energy-dense foods and by reducing TV viewing behaviours of adolescents.

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ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live)

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live)

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).

ABC Television (ABC1 & ABC News 24) - Guest appearance (live).Due to my expertise in media, I was invited to be a guest reviewer of the daily newspapers on national television. This was a live interview, lasting 10 minutes.