Daytime television viewing by hospitalized children: the effect of alternative programming.
In response to an earlier survey indicating that hospitalized children were indiscriminately watching excessive amounts of commercial television, a closed-circuit television station was instituted at the Children's Hospital of Winnipeg. The station offered patients commercial-free children's programming between 9 AM and 5 PM, including a daily one-hour live broadcast. In order to evaluate the effect of this station on children's television-viewing patterns, a second survey of the quantity and quality of daytime television viewing was carried out. This evaluative survey demonstrated an overall increase in television viewing, but a decrease in exposure to the potentially harmful effects of commercial television inasmuch as an average of nearly half of the children's viewing time was devoted to the hospital station. A dramatic increase in the viewing of children's programs (mean 43 v 147 minutes daily for the first and second surveys, respectively) along with additional viewing pattern data suggest that the closed-circuit station successfully filled a void for the patients. Overall the data indicated that alternative programming for pediatric patients has an enormous potential for alleviating the boredom and anxiety of hospitalized children.
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay; D008124:Locomotion; D010356:Patient Isolation; D012737:Sex Factors; D013690:Television; D013997:Time Factors