NEW YORK — Spending more time around the family dinner table – and less time in front of the TV – can help prevent kids from getting fat, a new study shows.

Among 8,000 children followed from kindergarten to third grade, those who watched the most TV were at the greatest risk of being or becoming overweight, Dr. Sara Gable of the University of Missouri, Columbia and her colleagues found. And the fewer meals children ate each week with their families, the more likely they were to put on excess pounds.

"Families need to work together to help children maintain a healthy weight," Gable told Reuters Health in an e-mail message. "Even the simple things, like how often families eat together and the amount of time that children spend watching television, play a role in children’s weight status."

To identify factors associated with being or becoming overweight, Gable and her team divided the 8,000 children who were participating in a national, long-term study into three groups: those who had never been overweight; those who began the study at a normal weight, but then became overweight; or those who were overweight throughout the study.

The risk of being persistently overweight increased by three percent for every additional hour a child spent watching TV each week, the researchers found, while each family meal missed per week increased the risk of persistent overweight by eight percent. Living in a neighborhood perceived as unsafe for outside exercise also substantially increased the risk of being overweight.

Kids who stayed at a normal weight throughout the study watched 14.12 hours of TV a week, compared with 15.63 hours for those who became overweight and 16.09 hours for those who were overweight for the entire study period.

Children who did not become overweight ate 10.26 meals a week with their families, compared with 9.54 for children who became overweight and 9.57 for persistently overweight children.

While the actual percentages for increased risk were small, the investigators note that "even a small effect matters when the base rate of the phenomenon in question is as high as the prevalence of overweight in a general population." They add that 17 percent of the children in the current study were overweight by third grade.