Background: There is an alarming increase in the prevalence of child obesity in Chile. Lack of exercise and bad feeding habits strongly strongly contribute to the problem.
Aim: To investigate the influence of television publicity on school age children food preferences.
Material and methods: A semi structured interview was applied to a representative sample of 786 school age children aged 6 to 11 years old, living in Metropolitan Santiago. Time watching television during week days and the attitude towards food and beverage commercials was analyzed and related to food preferences.
Results: Ninety nine percent of school age children watch television during week days and 20% watches more the three hours daily. Snack commercials such as those about potato chips, chocolates, cookies and ice cream, are preferred by 35% of children. Soda commercials are preferred by 33% and yoghurt commercials by 12%. Eighty five percent of children had money to buy food. Of these, 66% bought snacks, 15% bought sodas and 7% yoghurt. The same tendency was observed in school collations.
Conclusions: The high percentage of children, watching television and the influence of commercials in their food preferences, requires an urgent educational strategy to promote healthy feeding habits.