According
to a new study, too much time in front of the television is a leading cause of
death in the United States.
Background
information provided in the study states 92 percent of households in the United
States have televisions in their homes, and 80 percent of Americans watch 3.5
hours daily of television, on average.
TV
is the most prevalent manner to spend sedentary, leisure time. The researcher’s
hypothesis is that the amount of time spent watching TV is indicative of a
person’s overall physical activity--or lack thereof. The results of this study
join a growing amount of research supporting the idea that sitting too much is
detrimental to health.
Researchers
followed over 221,000 individuals from age 50 to age 71 for 15 years. At the
start of the study, no participant had any chronic disease(s).
The
more time spent in front of the TV, the more likely a participant was to die
from cancer, diabetes, flu/pneumonia, heart disease, Parkinson’s, or liver
disease, according to the study’s findings.
Risk
of early death was 15 percent higher for individuals who watched 3-4 hours each
day and 47 percent higher for individuals who watched more than seven hours.
Researchers took into account risk factors like alcohol intake, calorie intake,
health problems, and smoking.
However,
this study proved only association between TV viewing and early death by these
diseases.
The
death risk was associated with both inactive and active individuals in the
study. Exercise was not found to eliminate risks with sitting and watching
television for extended periods of time. Rather time spent sitting must be
replaced with active time.
This
study joins others regarding the risks to our health of sitting too much.