Mumbai: According to a new study, watching television for three hours or more per day could put you at a risk of a an early death. The study was carried in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The researchers at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona, Spain, were to examine whether spending more time than usual on watching television, computer or driving was connected to an increased risk for early death.
Data was gathered for 13,284 healthy university graduates in Spain, with an average age of 37. They followed up on the participants every two years, over an eight year span, surveying them on the number of hours spent on driving, watchingtelevision and computer.
At the end of the research period, 97 participants had died; therefore the researchers found surprising conclusions about the link between these activities and risk for early death.
“We observed that those in the lowest category of television viewing, those who watched television less than one hour a day, they have a very low risk for mortality,” study author Dr. Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor and chair of the department of public health at the University of Navarra, told FoxNews.com.
Those who watched more than three hours of television per day were at twice the risk of a premature death compared to the ones who watched it less than one hour. Notably, the researchers found no link between spending time on the computer, or driving, and the risk of premature death.
“We expected to find some association of higher mortality related to higher time driving or computer use, but found nothing…” Martinez-Gonzalez said. “Only for television watching, and it was stronger than we expected.”
The researchers suspect that watching too much of television is associated with a higher death risk because it is such a sedentary activity.
Previous researches have shown that social isolation can be a huge contributor to a premature death and watching television is an activity that is easily done in isolation.
“The other reason we think television watching may be associated with higher mortality rate is a lot of time watching television every day could be a marker of isolation, being a lonely person with very little social support,” Martinez-Gonzalez said. “This is a proxy for isolation. So if you have low social support, your mortality risk is higher many times.”
The researchers plan to continue their study, hoping to discover whether watching television is a risk factor for cardiac death, or cancer.
The research also mentions that there is no harm in watching your favourite shows only if it is in moderation and not exceeding the normal time limit.
“There is nothing bad in watching television, nothing wrong, unless you spend four or five hours a day,” Martinez-Gonzalez said. “In so far as you watch television for a while, two to two-and-a-half hours a day, this is perfect, no association, no significant risk for those categories. Only when there are three or more hours a day.”
