Boob Tube Time

The recent study on television viewing by hospitalized children observed a mean daily weekday duration of 3.9 hours.1 The authors compare this with a duration of 3.5 hours for nonhospitalized children. However, there are no factual data presented in their references justifying the 3.5 hour figure. A recent survey of all sixth and twelfth grade students in California showed a median daily duration of 2.0 hours.2 Similarly, the mean duration of daily television viewing obtained from a survey of more than 2,000 children of different ages was 2.2 hours.</jats:p