Research

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Prolonged television viewing (sedentary behavior) is associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.

Television viewing is not a neutral activity; it independently increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and early death, even if you exercise. The risk rises linearly with time for diabetes and heart disease, and sharply after 3 hours per day for mortality. To mitigate this, treat TV time as a health risk factor and actively limit daily viewing, especially beyond 3 hours, by replacing it with light movement or social interaction.

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Prolonged TV viewing was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.
Anders Grøntved · JAMA · 2011

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 8 prospective cohort studies with large sample sizes (up to 175,938 individuals for diabetes) and long follow-up, though observational design limits causal inference.

Source

Television Viewing and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, and All-Cause Mortality

Anders Grøntved · JAMA · 2011

DOI 10.1001/jama.2011.812

Meta-analysis · 8 studiesCited 866×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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