Prolonged TV viewing linked to deadly diseases
In a new study suggests that prolonged hours watching TV is linked with 8 leading causes of death in the US.
In this study, researchers at the National Cancer Institute looked at more than 221,000 individuals aged 50-71 years old who were free of chronic disease at study entry. They confirmed the association for higher mortality risk from cancer and heart disease.
In addition, they identified new associations with higher risk of death from most of the leading causes of death in the US, such as, diabetes, influenza/pneumonia, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease.
The study found that compared to those who watched less than one hour per day, individuals who reported watching 3-4 hours of television watching per day were 15% more likely to die from any cause; those who watched 7 or more hours were 47% more likely to die over the study period. Risk began to increase at 3-4 hours per day for most causes they examined. The investigators took a number of other factors into consideration that might explain the associations observed, such as caloric and alcohol intake, smoking, and the health status of the population, but when they controlled for these factors in statistical models, the associations remained.
Another important finding of the study is that the detrimental effects of TV viewing extended to both active and inactive individuals, “Although we found that exercise did not fully eliminate risks associated with prolonged television viewing, certainly for those who want to reduce their sedentary television viewing, exercise should be the first choice to replace that previously inactive time,” said lead investigator Sarah K. Keadle, PhD, MPH, Cancer Prevention Fellow, Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute.
Keadle cautioned that further research is still needed to understand the associations more completely.
