On December 8, 2023, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development successfully hosted the 10th session of the Fall 2023 Reading Club. The keynote speaker for this event was research fellow Yuchen Gao from Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development.

The research presented in this event is “The effect of TV viewing on children’s obesity risk and mental well-being: Evidence from the UK digital switchover,” published by Adrián Nieto and Marc Suhrcke in the  Journal of Health Economics , 2021. This research examines the effect of screen-based activities on obesity and mental well-being for children, using a large survey dataset representative of the UK population and an event study model that exploits exogenous variation in the entry date of the digital television transition in the UK. The digital transition increased the number of available free television channels from 5 to 40, leading to a rise in television viewing time. Results show that receiving access to digital television signal considerably increases the mental health total difficulties score among children, and that this impact grows over time. This research also finds suggestive evidence that the digital transition could have increased BMI for children. Underlying the net effects appear to be decreases in participation in social and physical activities.

Source: Nieto, A., & Suhrcke, M. (2021). The effect of TV viewing on children’s obesity risk and mental well-being: Evidence from the UK digital switchover.  Journal of Health Economics, 80 , 102543.

(By Yuchen Gao)