Research

Mixed

Genetically predicted leisure television watching causally increases the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and disease severity.

Reduce time spent watching television, as it is causally linked to higher risks of COVID-19 hospitalization and severity. This risk is mediated by metabolic factors like obesity and smoking, so replacing TV time with physical activity may mitigate these risks.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Genetically proxied leisure television watching was significantly associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 1.55, 95% CI 1.29–1.88; P = 4.68 × 10–6), and greater disease severity (OR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.33–2.56; P = 0.0002).
Xiong Chen et al. · Journal of Translational Medicine · 2022

Why this rating

Large-scale MR design with robust sensitivity analyses (MR-Egger, MR-PRESSO) confirming the association despite heterogeneity.

Source

Causal relationship between physical activity, leisure sedentary behaviors and COVID-19 risk: a Mendelian randomization study

Xiong Chen et al. · Journal of Translational Medicine · 2022

DOI 10.1186/s12967-022-03407-6

cohort · n=3008909Cited 252×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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