teewonk's Profile

The abstract (here) says, "Compared with persons who watch no TV, those who spend a lifetime average of 6 h/day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years ... less."

Take the total life lost and divide it by the total hours watched.

(4.8 years of life lost*365.25 days/year*24 hours/day*60 minutes/hour)/(6 hours of watching TV/day*365.25 days/year*(78-25) years)

gives 21.7 minutes of life lost/hour of watching TV. (78 is life expectancy, and 25 is from the statement "after the age of 25".)

It says an average of 6 hours a day, which means they considered a range, but I have no idea if this works for the first hour. I didn't read the whole study, and maybe they look at the effect for different ranges, not just non-watchers vs the average.

Correlation does not necessarily imply causation, and I would think that most people who watch more than, say, 2 hours of TV per day on average have other problems that would be the cause. Seriously, who watches 6 hours of TV per day on average?

They do give a caveat: "This study is limited by the low precision with which the relationship between TV viewing time and mortality is currently known." So maybe they didn't think they had good enough data to show the incremental cost of an additional hour of TV vs. just the average.

Still, the conclusion is appropriate: "TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity."

Take away: if you watch a lot of TV, try reducing your time in front of the TV and finding some other enjoyable activities to do instead.

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There is also a Bali in India.

I like the white chair in the living room. There was a similar one in one of the Spring Cure posts, but the owner didn't know who made it. Can someone identify this one for me, please?