Influence of television in children’s preference on attendance at a reading place in the waiting room of a community hospital

Abstract

Objective: We planned to evaluate the influence of the television in the attendance to a reading corner. Population, materials and methods: A cross sectional study was done. The studied population was all children between one and 12 years of age seen at the ambulatory clinic. The intervention was to turn off the television (TV) set located in the waiting room for a week and to leave it turned on the following one. Results: The activities into which children engaged were: going to the reading place, 77%; interacting with parents, 28%; playing with other children, 13%; watching TV, 11%; no activities, 10%; doing homework, 3%. Attendance at the reading corner was associated with younger age (p = 0.03) and females (p = 0.002), but not with the TV set turned on. Conclusions: The presence of the TVset turned on in the waiting room of the hospital did not influence the election of children for visiting the reading place