Research
Energy balance
The association between TV viewing and health risks is partially mediated by diet and obesity (BMI), but an independent risk remains after adjusting for these factors.
You cannot simply 'exercise off' the effects of sitting and watching TV. The risk comes from both inactivity AND the unhealthy eating habits often associated with viewing. Reducing TV time helps both your activity levels and your diet.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Further adjusting for dietary variables slightly attenuated the risk estimate but an increased risk of type 2 diabetes remained... When individual studies were pooled with an additional adjustment for BMI... the summary estimate was attenuated to 1.13...
Why this rating
Based on the same meta-analysis, using sensitivity analyses to adjust for confounders.
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×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Prolonged television viewing (sedentary behavior) is associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.Good
- Reducing TV viewing time can lead to improvements in BMI, energy intake, and energy expenditure in short-term experimental settings.Moderate
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