Too much TV viewing may take years off your life: Study
Melbourne, Aug 16 (PTI) Spending your days in front of the television may contribute to a shortened lifespan, a latest Australian study has said.
The findings were made today by an Australian team led by Lennert Veerman of School of Population Health at University of Queensland.
“If our estimates are correct, then TV viewing is in the same league as smoking and obesity,” Veerman said.
“We”ve taken that study and translated it into what it means for life expectancy in Australia given how much TV we view,” Veerman said.
His team estimated that every single hour of TV watched after age 25 was associated with a reduction in life expectancy of around 22 minutes.
“Given that Australians watch on average around two hours of TV a day, that would reduce life expectancy at birth by 1.8 years for men and about 1.5 years for women,” he said.
Veerman said the small proportion of people who watch six hours of television a day would reduce their lifespan by 4.8 years.
Veerman said that according to conservative estimates, every cigarette took 11 minutes off a smoker”s life expectancy and compared the risk to that run by television viewers.
“At the individual level there are few things worse you can do than smoking,” he said.