New research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that adults who watched television for three or more hours a day were twice as likely to have a death risk as adults who watched less than three hours of television.
"Watching television is a passive lifestyle that is currently increasing in society. Television viewing habits make it difficult for people to move and lead to a passive lifestyle. Our research is consistent with and in line with previous research that has linked time spent watching television to mortality rates, "said the head of research Miguel martinez-Gonzalez from the Department of Public Health, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, as reported by Science Daily (25/06).
These results were obtained by researchers after observing 13,284 healthy youths. the average participant was 37 years old and 60 per cent were women. Researchers looked at the passivity of the participants at their risk of death. Some of the things that researchers pay attention to are the time spent watching television, using computers, and time driving vehicles.
Participants were followed for 8.2 years. During the study period, there were 97 deaths. About 19 deaths were due to heart disease, 46 deaths from cancer, and 32 deaths from other causes. The risk of death in participants who watched television more than three hours a day was found to be twice that of participants who only watched television for one hour or less a day.
Even so, researchers found no link between the time spent using computers and driving and the risk of premature death for any reason. Researchers admit they need to do further research to confirm the results associated with using computers and driving.
