Buying a hearing aid can be a daunting experience, especially for those on a tight budget. There are various styles, brands, features and types of hearing aids to choose from. If you don't want to spend too much money, follow these 5 tips on buying a discount hearing aid.
1. Feature
The more features a hearing aid have, the more expensive it is. Think about the features that you will be most apt to use before deciding which hearing aid to buy. You'll only be wasting your money if you buy a hearing aid with more features than you need.
2. Value or basic hearing aids
Most companies offer three or more price point options for different ranges (such as basic, intermediate or top) of hearing aids. Forego the top range which is the pricier option that has lots of features you may not need. Instead, opt for the value or basic range, which still offer great performance and enough features for the regular user. Best of all, you will still receive a warranty and good customer service.
3. Older models of hearing aids
Hearing aid manufacturers are continually coming up with newer products. They may retire old models of hearing aids to allow room for newer ones. Take advantage of their clearance sale where you can buy a quality hearing aid at massive discounts - sometimes as much as 50% off the regular price.
4. Online hearing aid resellers
You can find plenty of hearing aid resellers online. They sell a wide range of hearing aids from various manufacturers but at discounted prices. However, they may not offer the same product warranty or customer service as the manufacturer so always check before making a purchase. Many hearing aids require a hearing care professional to make the necessary adjustments. If you can settle for a basic hearing aid such as behind the ear style, there are terrific savings to be had online.
5. Research
Know what types and styles of hearing aids are available and compare them across various brands. All the major hearing aid companies and retailers have websites that provide comprehensive information about hearing aids. Learn as much as you can so that you can make an informed decision. Ask others who wear hearing aids for their opinions or read reviews from user groups online.
Finding an inexpensive hearing aid is not difficult if you follow these 5 easy tips. You just need to spend some time to comparison shop and the internet certainly makes it much easier to do so. The cheapest hearing aid is usually the most basic without requiring much professional adjustments. Expect to pay more for added features.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Investing in the Right Technologies for Health-IT
If acquiring new health-IT technology is on your blueprint for the New Year, the critical factors for success are less about acquisition decisions than implementation, says Molly Coye, founder and CEO of the Health Technology Center, a non-profit education and research organization. HealthTech provides technology forecasts and decision-making tools for nearly 25 percent of the nation’s hospitals, as well as nonprofit health plans and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. As a member of the Institute of Medicine, Coye co-authored major reports such as “Crossing the Quality Chasm” and is on the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), among other credentials. She serves on Google Health’s advisory board.
DHP: How can organizations make the right technology decisions in such a complex and rapidly changing environment?
Coye: There are a few pieces that can be helpful. One of them is a clear understanding of the integration of your technology strategy with your overall business strategy. Very often health care provider organizations, unfortunately, make decisions around clinical technologies separately from the information technologies. It is important to integrate and relate both of them very closely into the overall business strategy of organization.
Another issue is that most organizations never consider are some of the relatively less expensive investments that cross over between IT and clinical. Because they’re not expensive enough, they don’t hit the threshold for capital planning to kick them into the strategic system-like decision process. So decisions around, for example, an IT productivity management and communication system, video interpretation system, or clinical technologies — technologies that are not as expensive as, say, large imaging systems just simply don’t get addressed and opportunities are missed.
Another issue is the process within a health provider system. In many cases it’s highly fragmented and there is very little consistency across the pieces of the large or small hospital system. You need to have a process that is relatively clearly understood and there needs to be a high degree of transparency so that clinicians and staff in the system can understand why some technologies are advanced and others are not. This is a cultural goal. It often takes several years to develop a process and have it be widely understood within the organization so real traction can be had.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Health benefits with hexagonal water and shower filters
Involved in cellular communication, intracellular water movement, enzyme function and many other metabolic processes, hexagonal water helps keep you keep in good shape, while offers other health and cosmetic benefits. Our body’s cells have receptor sites. The water molecules must have a certain shape in order to hook up to these receptor sites, allowing nutrients to be transported into the cells andout of the cells. Generally the water molecule does not have the proper shape to get into our cells in order to remove the toxins and let nutrients to enter. Hexagonal Scalarwave Structured Water has the proper molecular shape for this. The Scalarwave technology uses ceramic oscillators, sacred geometry, inert gases, proprietary minerals and frequencies to imprint the hexagonal structure.
Purity/Clarity Concentrate is hexagonal water used every day to support the energetic needs of the body. The structured water is not temperature sensitive and can be produced in about 20 minutes. Super Cellular Concentrate increases physical energy and encourages mind-body balance. In this way it will keep you in a good shape and you will be able to complete all your tasks. This hexagonal water supplies maximum hydration and does not contain any additives.
Another amazing product is the shower filter. Anyone who has ever swum in a chlorinated pool knows how chlorine robs moisture from skin and hair. What most don't realize is that typically there is as much or more chlorine in your tap water as in most pools. TheWaterKey.com highlights two brands of shower filters: Wellness and Aquasana, believing that these are the best products on the market.
The Aquasana shower filter offersand cosmetic benefits; it’s like showering in natural spring water. It removes chlorine and enhances pH balance with a natural copper/ zinc mineral media called KDF-55D. The second filtration stage removes the THMs and VOCs that vaporize and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin potentially causing adverse health and cosmetic effects. Chlorine strips the natural protective oils from skin and hair causing excess dryness. Without the influences of chlorine you will notice significant cosmetic benefits. Also by removing chlorine and other chemicals found in tap water, you eliminate health risks related to inhalation and skin absorption of these chemicals. This shower filter gives great benefits for asthma and allergy sufferers due to the elimination harmful chlorine vapors.
Wellness shower filter reduces up to 99% of Chlorine for about 24 months which is two or three times longer than regular shower filters available. The hot water from our showers opens up the pores of our skin and we end up absorbing over 600% more chlorine and other chemicals than we could from drinking the same un-filtered water all day. With Wellness you don’t need to worry, you will have a healthier and more sanitized shower.
Take advantage of the benefits from hexagonal water and shower filters to be healthier and in a better mood.
Purity/Clarity Concentrate is hexagonal water used every day to support the energetic needs of the body. The structured water is not temperature sensitive and can be produced in about 20 minutes. Super Cellular Concentrate increases physical energy and encourages mind-body balance. In this way it will keep you in a good shape and you will be able to complete all your tasks. This hexagonal water supplies maximum hydration and does not contain any additives.
Another amazing product is the shower filter. Anyone who has ever swum in a chlorinated pool knows how chlorine robs moisture from skin and hair. What most don't realize is that typically there is as much or more chlorine in your tap water as in most pools. TheWaterKey.com highlights two brands of shower filters: Wellness and Aquasana, believing that these are the best products on the market.
The Aquasana shower filter offersand cosmetic benefits; it’s like showering in natural spring water. It removes chlorine and enhances pH balance with a natural copper/ zinc mineral media called KDF-55D. The second filtration stage removes the THMs and VOCs that vaporize and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin potentially causing adverse health and cosmetic effects. Chlorine strips the natural protective oils from skin and hair causing excess dryness. Without the influences of chlorine you will notice significant cosmetic benefits. Also by removing chlorine and other chemicals found in tap water, you eliminate health risks related to inhalation and skin absorption of these chemicals. This shower filter gives great benefits for asthma and allergy sufferers due to the elimination harmful chlorine vapors.
Wellness shower filter reduces up to 99% of Chlorine for about 24 months which is two or three times longer than regular shower filters available. The hot water from our showers opens up the pores of our skin and we end up absorbing over 600% more chlorine and other chemicals than we could from drinking the same un-filtered water all day. With Wellness you don’t need to worry, you will have a healthier and more sanitized shower.
Take advantage of the benefits from hexagonal water and shower filters to be healthier and in a better mood.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
When Promoting Fruit Consumption Goes Sour
For many years, the Florida Department of Citrus has produced ads that exaggerate the value of citrus products. The most recent example, appearing both on television and on its Web site, suggests that drinking a single glass of orange juice per day can greatly reduce the odds of having a stroke. According to a press release on its Web site: A study published in the October 6 edition of the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA) found that drinking a glass of orange or
grapefruit juice every day may lower the risk of stroke by 25 percent....
[The researchers] found that increasing overall vegetable consumption
reduced the risk of stroke by just four percent, but increased consumption
of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.)
cut the risk by 32 percent. As for fruit, increasing overall consumption
lowered stroke risk by 11 percent, but simply drinking a glass of orange
juice every day reduced the risk of stroke by 25 percent.
This study, which was well designed, was supported by grants from the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements and by the Florida Department of Citrus. The researchers examined data on 75,596 women, ages 34 to 59, who were followed for a 14-year period, and on 38,683 men, ages 40 to 75, who were followed for eight years. All of the participants were free of cardiovascular disease when the studies began. The study found that those with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables--particularly cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, and citrus fruit and juice--had the lowest incidence of strokes caused by obstruction of blood supply to the brain. The researchers noted, however, that "the analyses of individual fruit and vegetable items did not show any single fruit or vegetable that was strikingly more protective than others" (JAMA 282:1233-1239, 1998).The Citrus Department's "25 percent reduction" figure was derived from a table showing that the people reporting consumption of one serving per day of citrus juice had 20% fewer ischemic strokes than the 20% of people who consumed the fewest number of servings of fruits and vegetables. The study provides strong support for the prevailing scientific recommendation to consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. But it cannot predict the effect of adding citrus juice to your current diet--as the ad suggests.
In 1986, the department advertised that people who exercised couldn't get enough potassium in their diet and that the potassium in grapefruit juice not only would provide enough, but would "balance sodium levels to regulate blood pressure and fight off fatigue." When the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus investigated, a department spokesperson said that the potassium deficiency claims were based on an opinion survey of athletes conducted by a nutrition consultant, plus a study of the effects of intense conditioning in young men undergoing basic military training. In addition, a literature survey was provided as substantiation of the roles of sodium and potassium as nutritional factors in controlling blood pressure. NAD's investigator replied that the data obtained from the studies could not support broadly stated claims and that the ad had overstated the benefits of drinking normal quantities of grapefruit juice. The spokesperson informed NAD that the claims had been discontinued and that a new campaign would promote grapefruit as a significant source of potassium when part of a healthy regimen, including proper diet and exercise. However, a subsequent ad stated that grapefruit juice was "high in potassium with no sodium: a combination that, along with proper diet and exercise, can help control blood pressure." This was still misleading because drinking normal quantities of grapefruit juice is unlikely to lower blood pressure.
In 1993, the department distributed a booklet containing several pages of misleading information about vitamin C. Among other things, the booklet suggested that vitamin C "may offer remarkable protection against heart disease" and "can help prevent tuberculosis." (The latter claim was attributed to "Dr. Irwin Stone," but did not indicate that Stone's doctoral credential was a Ph.D. from nonaccredited Donsbach University.) The booklet also claimed that vitamin C must be ingested daily because it cannot be stored in the body. This claim was false, because the body normally stores about a month's supply.
For many years, the Florida Department of Citrus has produced ads that exaggerate the value of citrus products. The most recent example, appearing both on television and on its Web site, suggests that drinking a single glass of orange juice per day can greatly reduce the odds of having a stroke. According to a press release on its Web site: A study published in the October 6 edition of the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA) found that drinking a glass of orange or
grapefruit juice every day may lower the risk of stroke by 25 percent....
[The researchers] found that increasing overall vegetable consumption
reduced the risk of stroke by just four percent, but increased consumption
of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.)
cut the risk by 32 percent. As for fruit, increasing overall consumption
lowered stroke risk by 11 percent, but simply drinking a glass of orange
juice every day reduced the risk of stroke by 25 percent.
This study, which was well designed, was supported by grants from the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements and by the Florida Department of Citrus. The researchers examined data on 75,596 women, ages 34 to 59, who were followed for a 14-year period, and on 38,683 men, ages 40 to 75, who were followed for eight years. All of the participants were free of cardiovascular disease when the studies began. The study found that those with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables--particularly cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, and citrus fruit and juice--had the lowest incidence of strokes caused by obstruction of blood supply to the brain. The researchers noted, however, that "the analyses of individual fruit and vegetable items did not show any single fruit or vegetable that was strikingly more protective than others" (JAMA 282:1233-1239, 1998).The Citrus Department's "25 percent reduction" figure was derived from a table showing that the people reporting consumption of one serving per day of citrus juice had 20% fewer ischemic strokes than the 20% of people who consumed the fewest number of servings of fruits and vegetables. The study provides strong support for the prevailing scientific recommendation to consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. But it cannot predict the effect of adding citrus juice to your current diet--as the ad suggests.
In 1986, the department advertised that people who exercised couldn't get enough potassium in their diet and that the potassium in grapefruit juice not only would provide enough, but would "balance sodium levels to regulate blood pressure and fight off fatigue." When the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus investigated, a department spokesperson said that the potassium deficiency claims were based on an opinion survey of athletes conducted by a nutrition consultant, plus a study of the effects of intense conditioning in young men undergoing basic military training. In addition, a literature survey was provided as substantiation of the roles of sodium and potassium as nutritional factors in controlling blood pressure. NAD's investigator replied that the data obtained from the studies could not support broadly stated claims and that the ad had overstated the benefits of drinking normal quantities of grapefruit juice. The spokesperson informed NAD that the claims had been discontinued and that a new campaign would promote grapefruit as a significant source of potassium when part of a healthy regimen, including proper diet and exercise. However, a subsequent ad stated that grapefruit juice was "high in potassium with no sodium: a combination that, along with proper diet and exercise, can help control blood pressure." This was still misleading because drinking normal quantities of grapefruit juice is unlikely to lower blood pressure.
In 1993, the department distributed a booklet containing several pages of misleading information about vitamin C. Among other things, the booklet suggested that vitamin C "may offer remarkable protection against heart disease" and "can help prevent tuberculosis." (The latter claim was attributed to "Dr. Irwin Stone," but did not indicate that Stone's doctoral credential was a Ph.D. from nonaccredited Donsbach University.) The booklet also claimed that vitamin C must be ingested daily because it cannot be stored in the body. This claim was false, because the body normally stores about a month's supply.
Monday, October 1, 2007
15% of Women Struggle With Pregnancy-Related Depression
One in seven women suffers from depression before, during or after pregnancy, a new study finds.
The consequences of depression can be devastating to the mother, her baby and her entire family, according to the report in the October issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry.
"The prevalence of women diagnosed with depression before, during and after pregnancy was pretty similar," said lead author Patricia Dietz, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Reproductive Health.
"There are a lot of women who are becoming pregnant with depression, and that's really important for people providing prenatal care to be aware of," she said.
Screening for depression needs to occur during pregnancy and right afterward, Dietz said.
The consequences of postpartum depression, which affects 400,000 women in the United States, can be significant. It can inhibit a woman's ability to bond with her baby, relate to the child's father, and perform daily activities, according to background information for the study.
For the study, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, Dietz's team collected data on 4,398 women who gave birth between 1998 and 2001. They found that 8.7 percent of the women experienced depression in the nine months before pregnancy, 6.9 percent during pregnancy, and 10.4 percent in the nine months following childbirth.
Some 15.4 percent of the women were depressed during at least one of these periods. Almost 75 percent of women with postpartum depression also suffered from depression before pregnancy. And more than 50 percent of women who were depressed before pregnancy were depressed during pregnancy, Dietz said.
"For many women, it's a chronic condition," she said.
In addition, 93.4 percent of the women who were diagnosed with depression before, during or after pregnancy had seen a mental health professional or were taking antidepressants.
Among women with depression, 75 percent had taken antidepressants -- 77 percent before pregnancy, 67 percent during pregnancy and 82 percent after delivery, the researchers found.
Women should report any signs of depression to their doctor, Dietz said.
"There is effective treatment out there for women. You are supposed to be elated when you've had a baby. It is sometimes difficult to even bring depression up," she said. "But doctors should ask."
Dr. David L. Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center, said the finding that depression is very common before and after, as well as during, pregnancy is of clear importance.
"There are two potential explanations. Either the challenges of pregnancy -- from hormonal changes to psychological adjustment -- induce depression, or the medical monitoring that occurs around the time of pregnancy identifies depression that otherwise would have gone undiagnosed. Of course, both factors may be in play," he said.
There are opportunities for prevention if pregnancy is causing depression, Katz said. "If pregnancy is merely unmasking depression in the population at large, it highlights the need to screen more effectively. Finding depression is prerequisite to treating it," he said.
Dietz thinks that before a woman starts a program of antidepressants, she should discuss the risks and benefits with her doctor.
According to the March of Dimes, a woman who is depressed feels sad or "blue" for two weeks or longer. Other symptoms of depression include:
Trouble sleeping.
Sleeping too much.
Lack of interest.
Feelings of guilt.
Loss of energy.
Difficulty concentrating.
Changes in appetite.
Restlessness, agitation or slowed movement.
Thoughts or ideas about suicide.
The consequences of depression can be devastating to the mother, her baby and her entire family, according to the report in the October issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry.
"The prevalence of women diagnosed with depression before, during and after pregnancy was pretty similar," said lead author Patricia Dietz, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Reproductive Health.
"There are a lot of women who are becoming pregnant with depression, and that's really important for people providing prenatal care to be aware of," she said.
Screening for depression needs to occur during pregnancy and right afterward, Dietz said.
The consequences of postpartum depression, which affects 400,000 women in the United States, can be significant. It can inhibit a woman's ability to bond with her baby, relate to the child's father, and perform daily activities, according to background information for the study.
For the study, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, Dietz's team collected data on 4,398 women who gave birth between 1998 and 2001. They found that 8.7 percent of the women experienced depression in the nine months before pregnancy, 6.9 percent during pregnancy, and 10.4 percent in the nine months following childbirth.
Some 15.4 percent of the women were depressed during at least one of these periods. Almost 75 percent of women with postpartum depression also suffered from depression before pregnancy. And more than 50 percent of women who were depressed before pregnancy were depressed during pregnancy, Dietz said.
"For many women, it's a chronic condition," she said.
In addition, 93.4 percent of the women who were diagnosed with depression before, during or after pregnancy had seen a mental health professional or were taking antidepressants.
Among women with depression, 75 percent had taken antidepressants -- 77 percent before pregnancy, 67 percent during pregnancy and 82 percent after delivery, the researchers found.
Women should report any signs of depression to their doctor, Dietz said.
"There is effective treatment out there for women. You are supposed to be elated when you've had a baby. It is sometimes difficult to even bring depression up," she said. "But doctors should ask."
Dr. David L. Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center, said the finding that depression is very common before and after, as well as during, pregnancy is of clear importance.
"There are two potential explanations. Either the challenges of pregnancy -- from hormonal changes to psychological adjustment -- induce depression, or the medical monitoring that occurs around the time of pregnancy identifies depression that otherwise would have gone undiagnosed. Of course, both factors may be in play," he said.
There are opportunities for prevention if pregnancy is causing depression, Katz said. "If pregnancy is merely unmasking depression in the population at large, it highlights the need to screen more effectively. Finding depression is prerequisite to treating it," he said.
Dietz thinks that before a woman starts a program of antidepressants, she should discuss the risks and benefits with her doctor.
According to the March of Dimes, a woman who is depressed feels sad or "blue" for two weeks or longer. Other symptoms of depression include:
Trouble sleeping.
Sleeping too much.
Lack of interest.
Feelings of guilt.
Loss of energy.
Difficulty concentrating.
Changes in appetite.
Restlessness, agitation or slowed movement.
Thoughts or ideas about suicide.
Trouble at Home Boosts Kids' Asthma
Poor family support and bad neighborhoods can aggravate asthma symptoms in kids, Canadian research suggests.
Edith Chen and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver examined the degree of support that 78 children with asthma received from family and peers. They also looked at social problems, such as crime and violence, in the children's neighborhoods.
They then assessed the children's lung function, asthma symptoms, and certain behaviors that can affect asthma.
The results indicated a correlation between social environment and asthma symptoms and lung function. Children who reported less family support and lived in worse neighborhoods experienced greater asthma symptoms, the team said. Those who reported less family support had poorer lung function.
Further analysis revealed that low levels of family support were associated with greater lung inflammation which, in turn, was associated with poorer asthma outcomes. Family support did not appear to influence behaviors that can affect asthma.
The researchers also concluded that living in worse neighborhoods was associated with higher rates of child smoking and exposure to smoke, which is associated with poorer asthma outcomes.
"Poor family relations may foster psychological experiences with direct physiologic consequences, whereas problematic neighborhoods may operate by providing the role models for maladaptive behaviors," the study authors wrote.
Peer group support had no significant effect on asthma symptoms or lung function. The study was published in the first issue for October of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Edith Chen and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver examined the degree of support that 78 children with asthma received from family and peers. They also looked at social problems, such as crime and violence, in the children's neighborhoods.
They then assessed the children's lung function, asthma symptoms, and certain behaviors that can affect asthma.
The results indicated a correlation between social environment and asthma symptoms and lung function. Children who reported less family support and lived in worse neighborhoods experienced greater asthma symptoms, the team said. Those who reported less family support had poorer lung function.
Further analysis revealed that low levels of family support were associated with greater lung inflammation which, in turn, was associated with poorer asthma outcomes. Family support did not appear to influence behaviors that can affect asthma.
The researchers also concluded that living in worse neighborhoods was associated with higher rates of child smoking and exposure to smoke, which is associated with poorer asthma outcomes.
"Poor family relations may foster psychological experiences with direct physiologic consequences, whereas problematic neighborhoods may operate by providing the role models for maladaptive behaviors," the study authors wrote.
Peer group support had no significant effect on asthma symptoms or lung function. The study was published in the first issue for October of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Kids' TV Viewing Tied to Behavioral Problems
But the 'off' switch may reverse the chance of trouble down the road, study says
-- If your toddler is watching a lot of TV, turn it off now and save yourself a lot of trouble later.
That's the conclusion of a new study that suggests that the negative effects of lots of early TV viewing on children can be overcome by limiting viewing before the age of 6.
The study doesn't confirm that television is actually bad for young kids. Nor does it show exactly how much of a cutback would help children exposed to lots of TV early in life. Still, lead author Kamila Mistry, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it makes a strong case for a "significant" difference in behavioral problems in kids depending on their viewing.
"It's never too late," Mistry said. "That's an important message for parents as well as pediatricians, encouraging parents to turn off the TV and think about alternative activities for kids."
Television, of course, has long been blamed for a variety of ills among children, from lethargy and obesity to shortened attention spans. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages kids under 2 from watching any TV at all, and it says older kids shouldn't watch more than two hours a day.
Why take another look at TV and children? According to Mistry, the new study is unusual, because it followed kids over time -- from 2.5 years to 5.5 years -- and measured the effects of changing levels of TV watching.
The researchers looked at the results of surveys of 2,702 families who enrolled in a national study between 1996 and 1998. The kids were followed from birth to age 5.5.
Twenty percent of parents said their kids watched at least two hours of TV a day at both 2.5 and 5.5 years. Four in 10 children had TVs in their bedrooms at age 5.5.
Even when the researchers adjusted the study results to account for factors such as income and "parental involvement," they found that kids who watched two or more hours of TV daily at both ages were more likely to suffer from sleep, attention and aggressive behavior problems, and "externalizing of problem behaviors." Also, those who watched more TV over time had greater problems dealing with others.
But those children who reduced TV watching between the two ages didn't have a greater likelihood of either social or behavioral problems.
The researchers also found that kids with TVs in their bedrooms were more likely to have sleeping problems.
The findings are published in the October issue of Pediatrics.
The structure of the study didn't allow the researchers to say how much more likely kids were to have problems depending on their viewing habits, Mistry said. She added that it's not a cause-and-effect study. It's possible that behavioral and social problems may contribute to TV viewing, not the other way around, she said.
The study also didn't look at whether the children were watching educational programming, like "Sesame Street," or other programs, such as those geared toward adults.
"I hesitate to say TV is horrible," Mistry said, "but excessive amounts of any activity is probably not good."
Madeline A. Dalton, director of the Hood Center for Families and Children at Dartmouth Medical School, said she's not sure that reducing heavy early exposure to TV will eliminate the risk of problems. She thinks more research is needed to determine that and to figure out if it's possible that "parents may be more likely to sit their children in front of the TV if they have behavioral problems."
However, "time spent watching TV is likely to reduce the amount of time children spend interacting with adults and other children," Dalton said. "Therefore, it is not surprising that this may have an impact on ability to interact socially."
She added: "We are raising our children in a media-saturated world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but our knowledge of how media affects children -- both in terms of behavior and health -- has clearly lagged behind its use."
But the 'off' switch may reverse the chance of trouble down the road, study says
-- If your toddler is watching a lot of TV, turn it off now and save yourself a lot of trouble later.
That's the conclusion of a new study that suggests that the negative effects of lots of early TV viewing on children can be overcome by limiting viewing before the age of 6.
The study doesn't confirm that television is actually bad for young kids. Nor does it show exactly how much of a cutback would help children exposed to lots of TV early in life. Still, lead author Kamila Mistry, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it makes a strong case for a "significant" difference in behavioral problems in kids depending on their viewing.
"It's never too late," Mistry said. "That's an important message for parents as well as pediatricians, encouraging parents to turn off the TV and think about alternative activities for kids."
Television, of course, has long been blamed for a variety of ills among children, from lethargy and obesity to shortened attention spans. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages kids under 2 from watching any TV at all, and it says older kids shouldn't watch more than two hours a day.
Why take another look at TV and children? According to Mistry, the new study is unusual, because it followed kids over time -- from 2.5 years to 5.5 years -- and measured the effects of changing levels of TV watching.
The researchers looked at the results of surveys of 2,702 families who enrolled in a national study between 1996 and 1998. The kids were followed from birth to age 5.5.
Twenty percent of parents said their kids watched at least two hours of TV a day at both 2.5 and 5.5 years. Four in 10 children had TVs in their bedrooms at age 5.5.
Even when the researchers adjusted the study results to account for factors such as income and "parental involvement," they found that kids who watched two or more hours of TV daily at both ages were more likely to suffer from sleep, attention and aggressive behavior problems, and "externalizing of problem behaviors." Also, those who watched more TV over time had greater problems dealing with others.
But those children who reduced TV watching between the two ages didn't have a greater likelihood of either social or behavioral problems.
The researchers also found that kids with TVs in their bedrooms were more likely to have sleeping problems.
The findings are published in the October issue of Pediatrics.
The structure of the study didn't allow the researchers to say how much more likely kids were to have problems depending on their viewing habits, Mistry said. She added that it's not a cause-and-effect study. It's possible that behavioral and social problems may contribute to TV viewing, not the other way around, she said.
The study also didn't look at whether the children were watching educational programming, like "Sesame Street," or other programs, such as those geared toward adults.
"I hesitate to say TV is horrible," Mistry said, "but excessive amounts of any activity is probably not good."
Madeline A. Dalton, director of the Hood Center for Families and Children at Dartmouth Medical School, said she's not sure that reducing heavy early exposure to TV will eliminate the risk of problems. She thinks more research is needed to determine that and to figure out if it's possible that "parents may be more likely to sit their children in front of the TV if they have behavioral problems."
However, "time spent watching TV is likely to reduce the amount of time children spend interacting with adults and other children," Dalton said. "Therefore, it is not surprising that this may have an impact on ability to interact socially."
She added: "We are raising our children in a media-saturated world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but our knowledge of how media affects children -- both in terms of behavior and health -- has clearly lagged behind its use."
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