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 Similar amounts of time spent sitting while driving or using a
computer did not have the same associations, according to the
researchers, who focused on people with an average age of 37 to
eliminate old age as a factor.
“We did this study because there were some previous reports of a
higher mortality among subjects with a higher TV viewing time, but
they had been done in elderly people in other countries,” Dr. Miguel
Martinez-Gonzalez told Reuters Health in an email.
“We were interested in knowing whether or not this association also
was present in younger subjects,” said Martinez-Gonzalez, a
researcher with the Department of Public Health at the University of
Navarra in Pamplona, who is the study's senior author.
His team’s results are in line with past studies that found a 13
percent higher risk of death for each additional two hours per day
of television-watching time, and a sharper risk increase when daily
TV time went above three hours, he said.
And no study has ever reported lower mortality among those with
higher TV viewing time, he noted.
The researchers analyzed data gathered from 13,284 adults who had
graduated from the university beginning in 1999. They wanted to
examine any associations between three types of sedentary behavior
and risk of death from any cause.
The study team followed the participants for an average of eight
years and found 97 deaths, 19 of them from cardiovascular causes, 46
from cancer and 32 from other causes.
Compared to the people who sat watching an hour or less of
television a day, those who watched two hours a day had a 40 percent
higher risk of death. For those who watched three or more hours, the
risk was two-fold higher.
For drivers, two hours a day came with a 14 percent higher risk of
death compared to one hour or less. And two hours of computer use
daily was linked to a 4 percent lower risk than one hour or less.
Spending three or more hours at either task was not linked to any
further risk changes.
These results took into account other lifestyle factors like diet,
age, weight, smoking and other physical activity, the researchers
note in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The study doesn’t prove that watching TV directly leads to premature
death, it only shows a correlation, Martinez-Gonzalez and his
colleagues point out, adding that more research is necessary to
learn more about the possible mechanisms behind the links.
It’s also possible that other factors, such as illness, could
explain both the higher mortality and greater amounts of sedentary
time watching TV, for example.
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However, Martinez-Gonzalez said that inactivity and a sedentary
lifestyle increase resistance to insulin, reduce lean body mass and
increase fat mass. “These mechanisms are related to a higher risk of
diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers, such as colon,
rectum, and breast.”
Martinez-Gonzalez added that links between a sedentary lifestyle and
a greater risk of depression and suicidal ideation may also be
involved.
“What we realize is that the study stresses the importance of
decreasing our sedentary time and then also increasing our moderate
intensity physical activity as recommended by the American Heart
Association guidelines,” Dr. Heather Johnson told Reuters Health.
“There have been multiple very large studies demonstrating an
association with higher levels of physical activity and lower rates
of mortality and lower rates of cardiovascular disease,” said
Johnson, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health. She was not involved in the study.
Johnson said that aerobic physical activity helps to lower so-called
bad cholesterol, helps to lower blood pressure and improves the
health of blood vessels.
“The American heart association stresses 150 minutes per week of
moderate intensity aerobic exercise,” she said. “So about 30 minutes
five days a week or some people prefer 40 minutes four days per
week.”
Johnson added that people who don’t currently have an exercise
regimen should start slowly – about 15 minutes per day and should
check with their physician before starting a new exercise program.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1vlpWD6
Journal of the American Heart Association, online June 25, 2014.
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