It's a fact that watching television for long results in adverse health effects, but, a new study has found that excessive TV watching is linked to eight major causes of death, including cancer, diabetes and liver disease.
According to a study conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Michigan, people those who watch more than three-and-a-half hours of television a day are at increased risk of death from eight of the major causes of death in the United States, including cancer, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia, heart disease, Parkinson's and liver disease , reported the Forbes.
Around ninety-two percent of Americans have a television set in their home. On an average, 80 percent of American adults watch three-and-a-half hours of TV a day, which is more than half of their free time.
"We know that television viewing is the most prevalent leisure-time sedentary behaviour and our working hypothesis is that it is an indicator of overall physical inactivity," said lead investigator Dr Sarah Keadle in a Forbes report. "In this context, our results fit within a growing body of research indicating that too much sitting can have many different adverse health effects."
For the purpose of the study, the researchers monitored over 221,000 people aging within 50 to 71 who were free from any chronic illness at the start of the 15-yearlong study.
The findings revealed that those who watched three to four hours of TV a day were 15 per cent more likely to die from any cause as compared to those who watched one hour per day. While, individuals who spent more than 7 hours per day watching television were 47 per cent more likely to die.
The researchers found that the risk began to increase at 3-4 hours per day for most causes. The investigators took a number of other factors into consideration including caloric and alcohol intake, smoking, and the health status of the respondents, reported the Independent.
Interestingly, the study revealed that the adverse effects of watching TV for long hours extended to both active as well as 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," added Dr. Keadle.
"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."
The study report was published online in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
