Watching excessive amounts of television is as serious a public health problem as smoking or obesity, according to researchers.
Experts from the University of Queensland in Australia found that on average every hour of television reduced the viewer’s life expectancy by almost 22 minutes, although they said that the study was limited by lack of evidence of long-term trends.
They concluded that after the age of 25, six hours of daily viewing could cut a person’s lifespan by almost five years. Data compiled from a lifestyle study involving more than 11,000 people in Australia, combined with population trends and death rates, suggests that being sedentary for long periods increases the risk of dying earlier.
The researchers, writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, observed…