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PEDIATRICS Vol. 114 No. 2 August 2004, pp. 511-512

Television Viewing and Attention Deficits in Children

Roger L. Bertholf, PhD
Steve Goodison, PhD
Department of Pathology
University of Florida Health Science Center
Jacksonville, FL 32209

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

To the Editor.—

The report by Christakis et al1 suggests that early-age television viewing is associated with attention deficits later in childhood. It has been argued that television promotes inactivity, obesity, promiscuity, and possibly aggression in adults, and thus the impact of television viewing by children is certainly a concern. The message resonates in a society seemingly obsessed with public health villains. Although television eventually may earn a place among contemporary threats to our well-being, Christakis et al do not provide a convincing case for this conclusion.

The use of 1.2 standard deviations above the mean on a hyperactivity scale as the threshold for attention disorders is problematic. The authors defend the arbitrary threshold by noting that it corresponds to previous reports of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) prevalence in age-matched community samples. However, this misapplication of statistical data seriously compromises the very foundation of the authors’ conclusions.

In the first place, the choice of 1.2 standard deviations above the mean as the threshold for attention disorders is specious and begs the question by assuming the conclusion before advancing the argument. According to the American Diabetes Association, 6% of the US population has diabetes, but this does not imply that everyone with blood glucose >94th percentile has diabetes, and measurement of blood glucose is a far more reliable test than subjective responses to behavioral surveys. Second, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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