Tv Implicated In Autism Rise
Author: Dr. Beth Paxton

In an interesting and unorthodox study, researchers have
determined that television viewing might be one cause of the
dramatic rise in autism cases in the United States.

The study is unorthodox not only because it examines autism not
from the usual standard of perhaps diet or genetics being a
cause -- or even immunizations, which is frequently blamed for
the rise in autism -- but from a standard of "nurture". That
is, the idea that something in a child's environment that can
be controlled might cause autism.

Michael Waldman, PhD., a Cornell University management
professor, wondered if television might be a cause in the
autism rise when it occurred to him that in recent years the
number of children diagnosed with autism has increased
substantially. This comes at the same time that children have
experienced increased access to a number of television
opportunities, including cable TV, DVDs and the like.

Waldman contacted some colleagues in the medical community and
asked them to look at the issue, but nobody would. Waldman,
then, decided to look at the issue himself, utilizing research
tools more often seen in the economic community than typical
medical studies.

But the results of his nonscientific studies bolstered
Waldman's opinions. He found that there's a strong link between
television viewing and autism.

Waldman was interested in how much television toddlers watch,
but found there are few statistics on how much television they
actually watch. But there are studies, he found, on how much
television families watch, and there are also statistics that
show toddlers watch more television when it's raining than when
it's not raining.

Using this information, Waldman and colleagues looked at autism
rates in California, Washington and Oregon counties. Each of the
three states has significant regional differences in annual
total rainfall. Confirming Waldman's suspicion, autism rates
are the highest in the wettest counties.

But this wasn't enough information to back up Waldman's
beliefs. He said it was possible that indoor toxins could be
causing the autism and not the television viewing. If children
are inside watching TV, they are also indoors more, and if
there are toxins in the home, that could be the cause and not
television. So Waldman and his colleagues added a second test:
They studied the rates of cable television subscriptions in
California in Pennsylvania.

In this study, researchers found that the areas with the
highest incidences of cable television subscribers also had the
most autistic children.

Waldman says this further bolsters his claims because, "our
view is there is no obvious thing correlated with both rain and
cable TV access except television viewing," he says.

Waldman still would like to see further studies done within the
medical community, but he and colleagues have recommended
parents follow the American Academy of pediatrics'
recommendations that children under the age of 2 not watch
television. The AAP also recommends that children older than 2
not watch more than an hour or two of television a day.

Leslie Rubin, a child development expert, disputes aspects of
Waldman's study, arguing it doesn't provide a solid link
between television viewing and autism. Rubin, the director of
developmental pediatrics at Emory University, is also director
of the center for developmental medicine in Atlanta.

Rubin says the study fails somewhat because it looks "at trends
in the diagnosis of autism more than the actual prevalence" of
autism specifically. Rubin says that while the proliferation of
DVDs, VCRs and television viewing all came at the same time,
that fact alone does not provide an undeniable link of one
thing leading to another.

But Rubin says there could be a more nebulous link. Since
autism treatment focuses on social interactions, Rubin says
children who watch a great deal of TV might not get those
necessary social interactions and might make them more
withdrawn. Children who are autistic or display autistic
tendencies might be unduly harmed by too much television.

"Social experiences are good for kids as they grow up," Rubin
says. "If children watch TV for most of their lives, I think
there will be some sort of negative impact. This may well be
associated with some diagnostic condition."


About The Author: Dr. Beth Paxton is a family physician and
educator on common health issues today's family faces, and how
to prevent and deal with the health concerns such as
bedwetting, childhood immunization, and chicken pox.
http://www.childrens-md.com