Much TV shortens life expectancy

Every hour adult people spend watching television shortens their life expectancy by about 22 minutes, a new study suggests. Australian researchers at the University of Queensland found that people who had spent on average six hours per day in front of the tube died 4.8 years earlier that peers who never watched TV. The findings were resulted from data related to the ongoing Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) Study, which began in 1999, and from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The scientists used data on 11,000 people aged 25 and older from AusDiab and also used national population and mortality figures. Reportedly, every hour spent watching TV was estimated to lower life expectancy by 21.8 minutes for those 25 and older, according to the report published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. "If our estimates are correct, then TV viewing is in the same league as smoking and obesity," said senior researcher Lennert Veerman. "We've taken that study and translated it into what it means for life expectancy in Australia given how much TV we view." "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 added. According to conservative estimates, every cigarette takes 11 minutes off a smoker's life expectancy, Veerman noted, mentioning that smoking rates were on the decline, almost everybody watched TV. "At the individual level there are few things worse you can do than smoking," said Veerman, who urged people consider too much TV as posing a serious threat to public health at a population level. The scientists emphasized that the most of harm posed by watching TV is due to its indirect effects such as depriving people from being physically active and leading them to eat more and mindless during hours they wasted in front of the tube. This unhealthy life style leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other life threatening conditions. People, who watch too much TV are more likely to be lonely, isolated and depressed which may cause premature mortality. This is not the first study showing that watching TV leads to a shorter life span. However, the results of the new one are more concerning. Although Australian and US guidelines "recommend no more than two hours of screen time per day" for children, they wrote, "with further corroborative evidence, a public health case could be made that adults also need to limit the time spent watching TV."