• Guy E J Faulkner, Matthew Y W Kwan, Margaret MacNeill, and Michelle Brownrigg.
• University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. guy.faulkner@utoronto.ca
• J Health Commun. 2011 May 1; 16 (5): 519-32.

AbstractMedia interventions are one strategy used to promote physical activity, but little is known about their effectiveness with children. As part of a larger evaluation, the purpose of this study was to assess the short-term effect of a private industry sponsored media literacy campaign, Long Live Kids, aimed at children in Canada. Specifically, we investigated children's awareness of the campaign and its correlates. Using a cohort design, a national sample (N = 331, male = 171; mean age = 10.81, SD = 0.99) completed a telephone survey two weeks prior to the campaign release, and again 1 year later. Only 3% of the children were able to recall the Long Live Kids campaign unprompted and 57% had prompted recall. Logistic regression found family income (Wald χ(2) = 11.06, p < .05), and free-time physical activity (Wald χ(2) = 5.67, p < .01) significantly predicted campaign awareness. Active children (≥3 days/week) were twice as likely to have recalled the campaign compared with inactive children (<3 days/week), whereas children living in high-income households (>$60,000/yr) were between 3.5 to 5 times more likely to have campaign recall compared with children living in a low-income households (<$20,000/yr). These findings suggest that media campaigns developed by industry may have a role in promoting physical activity to children although our findings identified a knowledge gap between children living in high- and low-income households. Future research needs to examine how children become aware of such media campaigns and how this mediated information is being used by children.

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