Every TV show is doing you damage

WATCHING television may be associated with a loss of life comparable to major chronic disease risk factors, such as smoking and obesity, Australian researchers say.

In the first study of its kind to estimate loss of life due to television viewing, researchers said half an hour of television viewing equated to the average loss of life due to smoking a single cigarette.

Using data from the AusDiab study, the researchers calculated those who watched an average of six hours of television a day could expect to live 4.8 years less than those who watched no television.

This equated, on average, to every single hour of TV viewed after the age of 25 years reducing the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes.

Without any TV viewing, the average life expectancy from birth for an Australian man would be 1.8 years longer, and 1.5 years longer for women.

Australians aged 25 or older during 2008 watched a total of 9.8 billion hours of television.

The researchers said guidelines to limit television, similar to those for children, were necessary.

“A public health case could be made that adults [also] need to limit the time spent watching TV,” they said.

Current guidelines recommend no more than two hours of television viewing a day for children.

British Journal of Sports Medicine 2011, 15 August