In their study, researchers sifted through data on more than 221,000 people with the average age of 60.5 who had no history of chronic illnesses.
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Moreover, study participants who said that they were watching TV for seven or more hours per day had a almost 50 percent risk of dying before the study was over. “Given the increasing age of the population, the high prevalence of TV viewing in leisure time, and the broad range of mortality outcomes for which risk appears to be increased, prolonged TV viewing may be an important target for public health intervention than previously recognised”. They also found new links 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.
The results of the study have been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, December 2015 issue.
Watching 3-4 hours of TV per day significantly increases risks for major causes of death.
The findings revealed that there is a significant link between binge-watching TV and a higher risk of dying from heart disease or cancer.
“We know that television viewing is the most prevalent leisure-time sedentary behavior and our working hypothesis is that it is an indicator of overall physical inactivity”, the lead author of the study, Sarah K. Keadle from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, said in a press release.
“Our results indicate too much sitting can have many adverse health effects”. The researchers however adjusted for factors such as smoking, alcohol, caloric intake, and amounts of physical exercises among others.
As researchers say, additional studies have to be conducted now in order to understand more precisely the actual mechanisms that make prolonged TV viewing so damaging to the body.
“Though we discovered that train didn’t totally get rid of dangers related to extended tv viewing, definitely for individuals who wish to scale back their sedentary tv viewing, train must be the primary selection to exchange that beforehand inactive time”, said Dr. Keadle.
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Approximately 92% of all Americans have a TV set in their home, and they dedicate around half of their spare time to watching televised shows, to the detriment of other more demanding and beneficial activities. Of course, as stated by Dr. Keadle, exercise would be the “first choice” to replace that inactive time.
