Electronic Monitor for Monitoring TV Viewing Time
Description and Significance
Mohammad Ali Alahmadi
Exercise Physiology Department, Collage of Sport Science and Physical Activity
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Keywords: Sedentary Behaviour, TV Viewing, Obesity, Physical Inactivity, Objective Monitor Behaviour.
Abstract: Sedentary behaviour is related to adverse cardiometabolic risk profiles and premature mortality. Television
(TV) viewing time is the most predominant sedentary behaviour. There are also adverse associations
between TV viewing time and a number of cardiovascular risk factors such as the metabolic syndrome,
obesity, and abnormal glucose metabolism. Few measurement tools, such as direct observation and
videotaping, have been utilized to objectively monitor TV watching. Unfortunately, these measurements
have shortcomings as they invade the personal privacy and are impractical in large-scale research studies.
Therefore, there is a need for alternative objective measures. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to
design an electronic device to objectively monitor TV viewing. This device uses Radio-frequency
identification (RFID) technology that transfers data using tracking tag that is attached to a child's wrist like
a watch. This data will be collected by the RFID Reader which is connected to a main electronic board that
is designed to measure TV viewing time in minutes. The current research is expected to produce a novel
wireless electronic tool that can monitor TV viewing without intrusion to the person privacy and can be
widely used as an objective method of assessing TV viewing time.
1 INTRODUCTION
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is
increasing dramatically throughout the world.
Globally, the number of people who were diagnosed
with T2D was estimated at 110 million in 2002, and
this number is estimated to reach 220 million in
2010 (Zimmet, 2000) and 300 million in 2025 (King
et al., 1998). In Australia, 1 in 4 people over the age
of 25 years has T2D or impaired glucose metabolism
(Dunstan et al., 2001). Since 1981, the number of
cases of T2D in Australia has increased threefold,
and this number was projected to reach 1.23 million
by 2010 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,
2005). Between 2002 and 2003, diabetes and its
complications were the leading causes of death for
more than 20,000 Australians aged 25 years and
over (Dixon and Webbie, 2005).
Obesity, a major risk factor in the development
of T2D and increased morbidity and mortality, has
also increased rapidly in recent decades (Steinberger
and Daniels, 2003, Haslam and James, 2005). In
Australia, the prevalence of obesity has more than
doubled in the past 20 years and it has been
estimated that over seven million (60%) Australian
adults aged 25 years and over are overweight, and
over two million (21%) obese (Cameron et al.,
2003). Further to this, the economic cost of obesity
is very high; for example, in Australia, the total
financial cost of obesity in 2005 was estimated at
$AU21 billion (Access Economics, 2006).
It is well known that reduced physical activity is
one of the leading causes of the increased prevalence
of obesity among children and adults (Blair, 1993;
Hill and Peters 1998). In addition to physical
inactivity, sedentary behaviour is believed to be a
separate entity that could play a role in the aetiology
of T2D. Recently, a number of researches have
demonstrated that physical activity and sedentary
behaviors are two independents entities. Sedentary
behaviour is shown to be related to adverse
cardiometabolic risk profiles and premature
mortality (Lollgen et al., 2009).
Television (TV) viewing is the most predominant
sedentary behaviour and has been used as a measure
of sedentary behaviour. There is also an
accumulating evidence to suggest that there are
adverse associations between TV viewing time and a
91
Ali Alahmadi M..
Electronic Monitor for Monitoring TV Viewing Time - Description and Significance.
DOI: 10.5220/0004636600910094
In Proceedings of the International Congress on Sports Science Research and Technology Support (icSPORTS-2013), pages 91-94
ISBN: 978-989-8565-79-2
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
number of cardiovascular risk factors such as the
metabolic syndrome and obesity, abnormal glucose
metabolism, and T2D (Hu et al. 2003; Dunstan et al.
2005; Dunstan et al. 2007; Wijndaele et al., 2009).
Moreover, in cross-sectional studies for both adults
and children, TV viewing time was found to be the
predominant leisure-time sedentary behaviour that
may have negative effects on overweight and obesity
(Owen et al., 2000). In a recent cross-sectional
study, TV viewing time was also associated with
cardio-metabolic biomarkers, but not with computer
use and reading time in an Asian population (Nang
et al., 2013).
It is recommended that children younger than 2
years of age should not spend any time watching TV
and for children aged between 2 to 5 years TV
viewing time should be limited to less than one hour
per day (Commonwealth Department of Health and
Aged Care, 2010). In general, children should not
spend more than 2 hours a day watching TV. It is
also recommended that extended periods of
inactivity through participation in sedentary
activities such TV watching should be avoided by
both children and youth. In a study conducted in
Australian young adults, it was found that TV
viewing more than 3 hours per day was associated
with abdominal obesity, and this association was
partly explained by the mounts of food and beverage
consumption during TV viewing time (Cleland et al.,
2008). This finding supports the possible
explanation for the associations of sedentary
behaviors with unhealthy dietary habits. Children
and adolescents tend to consume more drinks and
foods while watching TV. When sedentary
behaviors and consumption of unhealthy diets are
combined, this may contribute to the aetiology of
obesity in children and adolescents independent of
reduced physical activity.
In longitudinal study, physical activity and
weekly TV viewing were estimated by a self-report
in a cohort of 6369 girls and 4487 boys aged
between10 to15 years (Taveras et al., 2007). In this
study, Taveras et al. (2007) have found no
substantial relationships between year- to- year
changes in TV viewing and changes in leisure time
moderate to vigorous physical activity, suggesting
that TV viewing and leisure-time physical activity
are separate constructs.
TV viewing is usually assessed by using a
questionnaire that has a single question about daily
or weekly TV viewing. It is known that self-reported
measures suffer from some amount of reporting
error. Therefore, measurement error in TV viewing
time may lead to weaken the observed findings from
previous studies.
Few studies used an objective measurement to
monitor TV watching, such as direct observation and
videotaping (Anderson et al., 1985; McKenzie et al.
1992; Ferguson et al., 2006). Unfortunately, these
later measurements of TV viewing time have
shortcomings since they are invasive to the person’s
privacy and they may change individual behaviours.
They are also considered as impractical when used
in large-scale research studies. Therefore, there is a
need for alternative objective measures to monitor
TV viewing time. To the best of our knowledge, no
studies have assessed TV viewing with an objective
measure such as an electronic device. Therefore, the
main aim of this paper is to describe the design of an
electronic device intended to objectively monitor TV
viewing time.
2 DESCRIPTION
OF THE ELECTRONICS
The electronic TV monitor is comprised of three
elements: a tracking tag (a wrist watch), a reader,
and main electronic board. This electronic TV
monitor uses Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
technology. RFID is a wireless and non-contact
radio-frequency that transfers data automatically
using identifying and tracking tag (i.e. RIFD tag)
that is placed to a child's wrist like a watch. The
RFID Reader is connected to a main electronic
board which is designed to measure the TV viewing
time in minutes when the RFID tag is detected by
the RFID Reader and the TV is switched on. The
main electronic board is composed with 24V
Battery, ATmega8 microcontroller, Voltage
Regulator, RS232 adapter, and RFID Reader to
receive data from the RFID tag (Picture 1).
3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TV
MONITORING DEVICE
This electronic device is considered a novel TV
monitor that is able to capture the time that a person
is spending in front of TV (or similar device). Such
technologies will enable us to objectively monitor
the real time spent in a very common pastime
behaviours. For the first time, the direct monitoring
of person’s sedentary behaviours that are related to
TV viewing will be achieved with intruding personal
privacy and without much influencing such
behaviours by the measurement itself.
icSPORTS2013-InternationalCongressonSportsScienceResearchandTechnologySupport
92
TV monitoring will also be relatively
inexpensive and can store information over a long
period of days or weeks. Consequently, the device is
expected to fill a gap in assessing one of the most
predominate sedentary behaviour, TV viewing. The
device is now designed with large memory storage
so that several days of TV viewing can be measured
objectively. Future research is needed to test
reliability and validity of this electronic device.
Picture 1: Description of the electronic TV monitor.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author extends his appreciation to the Deanship
of Scientific Research at King Saud University for
funding this work through the Research Project no
NFG2-23-33. Appreciation is also extended to Omar
Alhusseini from King Abdulaziz City for Science
and Technology for designing and integrating the
electronic device.
REFERENCES
Access Economics., 2006. The economic costs of obesity.
Report for Diabetes Australia (2006).
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2005. Costs of
Diabetes in Australia, 2000-01, Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare, Canberra.
Anderson, D. R., D. E. Field, et al, 1985. Estimates of
young children's time with television: a
methodological comparison of parent reports with
time-lapse video home observation. Child Dev 56(5):
1345-1357.
Blair, S. N., 1993. Evidence for Success of Exercise in
Weight Loss and Control. Ann Intern Med
119(7_Part_2): 702-706.
Cameron, A. J., Welborn, T. A., Zimmet, P. Z., Dunstan,
D. W., Owen, N., Salmon, J., Dalton, M., Jolley, D.
and Shaw, J. E., 2003. Overweight and obesity in
Australia: the 1999-2000 Australian Diabetes, Obesity
and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Med J Aust, 178, 427-
32.
Cleland V. J., Schmidt M. D., Dwyer T, Venn A. J., 2008.
Television viewing and abdominal obesity in young
adults: is the association mediated by food and
beverage consumption during viewing time or reduced
leisure-time physical activity? Am J Clin Nutr,
87(5):1148–1155.
Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.,
2010. National Physical Activity Guidelines for
Australians: Active Australia, Canberra, Australia,
Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care,
2010.
Dixon, T. and Webbie, K., 2005. Diabetes-related deaths
in Australia, 2001-2003. (Bulletin no. 32) Canberra:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Dunstan, D. W., J. Salmon, et al., 2007. Association of
television viewing with fasting and 2-h postchallenge
plasma glucose levels in adults without diagnosed
diabetes. Diabetes Care 30(3): 516-522.
Dunstan, D. W., J. Salmon, et al., 2005. Associations of
TV viewing and physical activity with the metabolic
syndrome in Australian adults. Diabetologia 48(11):
2254-2261.
Dunstan, D., Zimmet, P. Z., Welborn, T., Sicree, R.,
Armstrong, T., Atkins, R., Cameron, A., Shaw, J. and
Chadban, S. (2001) Diabesity and associated disorders
in Australia. The accelerating epidemic. Melbourne:
International Diabetes Institute.
Ferguson, A. C., R. A. Canales, et al., 2006. Video
methods in the quantification of children's exposures. J
Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 16(3): 287-298.
Haslam, D. W. and W. P. James., 2005. Obesity. Lancet
366(9492): 1197-1209.
Hill, J. O. and J. C. Peters., 1998. Environmental
contributions to the obesity epidemic. Science
280(5368): 1371-1374.
Hu, F. B., T. Y. Li, et al., 2003. Television watching and
other sedentary behaviors in relation to risk of obesity
and type 2 diabetes mellitus in women. JAMA
289(14): 1785-1791.
King, H., R. E. Aubert, et al., 1998. Global burden of
diabetes, 1995-2025: prevalence, numerical estimates,
and projections. Diabetes Care 21(9): 1414-1431.
Lollgen, H., A. Bockenhoff, et al., 2009. Physical activity
and all-cause mortality: an updated meta-analysis with
different intensity categories. Int J Sports Med 30(3):
213-224.
McKenzie, T. L., J. F. Sallis, et al., 1992. Anglo- and
Mexican-American preschoolers at home and at
recess: activity patterns and environmental influences.
J Dev Behav Pediatr 13(3): 173-180.
Nang EE, Salim A, Wu Y, Tai ES, Lee J, Van Dam RM.,
2013. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act., 2013. Television
screen time, but not computer use and reading time, is
associated with cardio-metabolic biomarkers in a
multiethnic Asian population: a cross-sectional study.
May 30;10(1):70. (Epub ahead of print)
ElectronicMonitorforMonitoringTVViewingTime-DescriptionandSignificance
93
doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-70.
Owen N, Leslie E, Salmon J, Fotheringham M. J., 2000.
Environmental determinants of physical activity and
sedentary behavior. Exerc Sport Sci Rev 28 : 153 –
158.
Steinberger, J. and S. R. Daniels., 2003. Obesity, Insulin
Resistance, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Risk in
Children: An American Heart Association Scientific
Statement From the Atherosclerosis, Hypertension,
and Obesity in the Young Committee (Council on
Cardiovascular Disease in the Young) and the
Diabetes Committee (Council on Nutrition, Physical
Activity, and Metabolism). Circulation 107(10): 1448-
1453.
Taveras E. M., Field A. E., Berkey C. S., Rifas-Shiman S.
L., Frazier A. L., Colditz G. A., Gillman M. W., 2007.
Longitudinal relationship between television viewing
and leisure-time physical activity during adolescence.
Pediatrics 2007; 119: e314-e319.
Wijndaele, K., N. Duvigneaud, et al., 2009. Sedentary
behaviour, physical activity and a continuous
metabolic syndrome risk score in adults. Eur J Clin
Nutr 63(3): 421-429.
Zimmet, P., 2000. Globalization, coca-colonization and
the chronic disease epidemic: can the Doomsday
scenario be averted? Journal of Internal Medicine
247(3): 301-310.
icSPORTS2013-InternationalCongressonSportsScienceResearchandTechnologySupport
94