More TV Time May Be Linked To Increased Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk

Reuters (6/15, McCook) reports that, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, more time spent in front of the TV may be linked to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, as well as to an increased risk of premature death.

Bloomberg News (6/15, Ostrow) reports that investigators looked at data from “eight studies.” The researchers found that, “for every two hours of TV viewing, the risk of type 2 diabetes increased 20 percent, the risk of cardiovascular disease rose 15 percent and the risk of early death rose 13 percent.”

The Washington Post (6/14, Stein) “The Checkup” blog reported that “the increased risk is apparently due at least in part to the increased risk for obesity, the researchers said.”

CNN /Health.com (6/15, Gardner) reports, “Extrapolating their findings to the entire US population, the researchers estimate that for every two hours Americans spend watching TV each day, there are 176 new cases of diabetes, 38 additional deaths from heart disease, and 104 additional deaths due to any cause per 100,000 people per year.”

The Boston Globe (6/14, Kotz) “Daily Dose” blog reported, “Not surprisingly, those who watched more TV tended to have poorer lifestyle habits — eating more, exercising less, and smoking more — but all of the studies used statistical methods to attempt to account for these and other factors.”

WebMD (6/14, Boyles) reported that one of the study’s authors “believes TV watching is more risky than other sedentary behaviors like working at a computer all day because it is associated with poorer eating behaviors.”

Also covering the story were HeartWire (6/14, Hughes), HealthDay (6/14, Salamon), MedPage Today (6/14, Phend), the UK’s Telegraph (6/15), and BBC News (6/15, Roberts).