People who watched more than four hours a day showed an 80% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 46% higher risk of all causes of death compared with those who watched fewer than two hours a day
The lead researcher of the study, Dr. David Dunstan said "What we showed was that irrespective of a person's exercise level, sitting for four or more hours watching television was linked to a significant increase in risk of death compared to watching lower amounts of TV."
Try to find how they found the causal relationship between TV hours and the increase in risk of death.
It is kind of scary to realize that TV would kill us eventually.
What do you think of this result?
I find it interesting that the report states that it is "sitting & watching television" that is harmful. Does that mean that the research didn't include situations such as walking on a treadmill while watching televsion? What about other activies engaged in while having the television on? Did the researchers only include instances of people who solely sat watching television, and did nothing else? And what about people with sedentary lifestyles that don't watch televsion? What makes watching television more harmful than working at a desk 8 or 9 hours a day? Interesting...
ReplyDeleteI think you have an excellent comment Tracey. I also wonder what kind of televison it was. I"m not sure if that makes much of a difference but maybe if it was PBS as apposed to Jersey Shore maybe that had an influence too. Working at a desk for 8 or 9 hours a day isn't much different really, you might be more likely to get up and move around more but thats about it. That article makes me glad I don't have cable so theres not much to watch on my TV.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder what sort of TV these people were watching. Movies, news, sports or just surfing? I wonder if different TV has affects on the person's weight? I was glad to read that the researchers took beginning health measurements. Having "80 percent greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease" is a large figure for watching four hours of TV a day.
ReplyDeleteIn short, I'm not surprised by the results.
I have to wonder about the results, there is to many factors I think that are over looked. Time of day, the position they sit in, what they are snacking on.... just way to much inconsistency for me to even believe the study.
ReplyDeleteOld Dog is Jim Kluza
ReplyDeleteYes, TV alone may not be the culprit of the 80% higher risk, but associated with other factors, as you guys mentioned, such as content or their life styles..etc.
ReplyDeleteBeing a psychology major when you read reports about studies like this it is wise to be cautious often times the results are taylored for press release, overstated, and the methods of study are pseudoscientific. Indeed appearently since this articles posting this has been brought to the authors attention as this was added to the posting:
ReplyDelete"The headline on an article in Tuesday's section A that said "Hours sitting in front of TV found to shorten life" overstated the results of the study. As the article stated researchers found a statistical relationship between long hours of tv viewing and shortened life span, but the study did not go so far as to find a direct cause."
The headline was grabbing and made us want to read but the ACTUAL results and CONTENT of the study are far less impressive.
Good comment, Kip.
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing this study or simiar studies on the Web. Here is a report from London, UK,
ReplyDeletehere.
Only in America something like this would be possible. It's almost disgusting how much television we watch as a society. A recent sociology study (I'm a sociology minor) showed that the ratio between people and televisions in American households now favors the television. We have more televisions in our houses than people! This statistic will blend beautifully with all of the carbs we like to consume while we consume our daily TV programs and sitcoms. I suppose the best we can hope for here is not change, but that we all have those Wii Fitness game systems that we could use on the side.
ReplyDeleteWell DUH! that's a pretty obvious conclusion this guy came up with. Of course people that sit for more than 4 hours a day watching tv are going to have a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. I'm sure if theyre sitting for that long theyre also eating a lot and not getting much exercise
ReplyDeleteBoredom causes people to watch tv. Boredom is caused by lack of 'other.' Any other activity besides reading a book, or playing video games includes physical activity. Walking, cleaning the house, window shopping downtown...anything! When people become couch potatos they become fat, lazy and bored. With less physical activity on the couch from boredom, a person may still feel slightly bored and think a snack might help their boredom.. I'm not talking carrot sticks and V8, I'm taling potato chips and soda! Oink oink! The couch potato starts pounding sodas and bags of Classic Lays potato chips, combined with lack of exercise (because their favorite hobby is TV) this puts them on the fast track to cardio vascualar disaster! I don't know where most of the American people were born. It's like they have closed off their ears for thier entire life time when it comes to eating healthy and exercising! With all the fat people and children in the world. Eat right (that does not include the Mcdonalds crispy chicken-it's fried) and exercise! Get that heart rate up sonny!
ReplyDelete