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Food Packaged with Toys: An Investigation on Potential Obesogenic Effects in Indian Children

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Abstract

Objective

To investigate, in a large pan Indian sample of school children, whether gadgets (toys) added to food increase food consumption, and if contemporary exposure to TV and/or advertising is a further promoting factor.

Methods

A total of 1,680 Indian children were first randomized to food exposure with or without toy and then to a five-level exposure to TV viewing and advertising according to a 2 × 5 full factorial ad libitum eating design study. The sample size was computed to detect a difference of 20 Kcal of caloric intake (assuming the same standard deviation of 20 Kcal in both groups) between “food with gadget” (Toy) and “food alone” (No Toy) groups in each level of the exposure to TV and advertising factor, given an alpha error equal to 0.05 and a power of 0.90.

Results

Mean caloric intake both in “Toy” and “No Toy” group was around 223 Kcal. When considering exposure to TV and advertising, mean values varied negligibly between 222 and 225 Kcal. According to linear models for the effect of gadget and exposure to TV and/or advertising on children’s intake, no significant adjusted associations were found, neither as main effects nor as interactions.

Conclusions

Food consumption by children is not influenced by the presence of added toys, even after adjustment for several potential confounding factors. The city where they live and age significantly influences Indian children’s caloric intake.

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Contributions

DG and AG: Designed the study; IB, AH and SB: Wrote the manuscript; HP, MK, IB and DG: Performed the statistical analysis. All authors contributed to results interpretation, read and approved the final manuscript. DG will act as guarantor for this paper.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Source of Funding

This work is partially supported by an unrestricted grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for Country Promotion, and from Prochild ONLUS (Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padova, Via Loredan, 18, 35121, Padova, Italy

    Dario Gregori, Alexander Hochdorn & Ileana Baldi

  2. Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT), Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

    Achal Gulati

  3. ZETA Research Ltd, Trieste, Italy

    Simonetta Ballali

  4. College of Nursing, Lakeside Institute of Child Health, Lakeside Hospital, Bangalore, India

    Haralappa Paramesh

  5. Kare Centre, Chennai, India

    Malathi Kumar

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  1. Dario Gregori
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  2. Achal Gulati
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  3. Alexander Hochdorn
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  4. Simonetta Ballali
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Correspondence to Dario Gregori.

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Gregori, D., Gulati, A., Hochdorn, A. et al. Food Packaged with Toys: An Investigation on Potential Obesogenic Effects in Indian Children. Indian J Pediatr 81 (Suppl 1), 30–38 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-014-1448-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-014-1448-x

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