Nursery World - New exercise link to asthma

Young children who spend more than two hours a day watching television double their risk of developing asthma, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow tracked the respiratoryhealth of more than 3,000 children from birth to 11-and-a-half years ofage. The parents were sent questionnaires annually regarding theirchildren's television habits from the age of three-and-a-half and onwhether their child was showing any symptoms of wheezing.

The study, which is published in Thorax, a British Medical Journalpublication, found that 6 per cent of children who had no asthmaticsymptoms when they were three- and-a-half had developed asthma by theage of 11 and-a-half. Children who had no symptoms from birth and whowere reported to watch more than two hours of television per day at theage of three- and-a-half were twice as likely to have developed asthmaby the age of 11-and-a-half.

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