CHICAGO (Reuters) - The documented rise in obesity as schoolchildren watch more TV appears also to be true for preschool youngsters, and is worse if they have a set in the bedroom, researchers said on Monday.

"Our findings suggest that the previously observed association between TV viewing and increased risk of overweight extends to an even younger age group, one through four-year-old children," the report said.

"Because most children watch TV by age two, educational efforts about limiting child TV/video viewing and keeping the TV out of the child's bedroom need to begin before then," concluded the report from Colombia University and Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The study was published in the June issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and involved 2,761 white, black and Hispanic low-income adults who had preschool children.

"The prevalence of overweight children was significantly related to the amount of time (hours per day) that the children spent watching TV or videos," the study concluded.

It also found that children with a TV set in their bedroom watched 4.8 hours more of TV or videotapes per week than those without.

"It is of note that a TV set in the child's bedroom was more strongly associated with increased risk of child overweight than the child's weekly TV/video viewing hours," the study said.

Why that is the case is not clear but it may be that "Children with a TV set in their bedroom might watch even more TV than parents are aware, or a TV in the bedroom might be a marker for other behaviors that contribute to ... child obesity," it said.

"We also found that the amount of time children spent watching TV/video was strongly influenced by demographic factors. As seen in studies of school-aged children and adolescents, black children spent the most time watching TV/videos, whereas the white children spent the least time," it added.

And though previous studies have found that the children of better-educated parents watched less TV, "We found in this low-income population that after statistical adjustment for racial/ethnic differences, parental educational attainment was no longer related to children's ... viewing."

The authors said it may be that the relationship between TV viewing and weight is stronger in low-income populations or that other factors are at work. They said an Italian study of children aged 2 to 8 found that less-educated mothers had more positive attitudes about TV, believing shows were instructive and stimulated interests, and had fewer concerns about negative impacts, such as exposure to violence.

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