Every additional hour spent watching TV in your 20s increases your risk of heart disease, study says

Excessive screen time has long been linked to a range of health problems, from needy sleep and obesity to mental health issues. Now a fresh study reveals how watching TV, a common recreational activity and popular form of screen operate, affects the risk of cardiovascular disease in youthful adults.

This test suggests that each additional hour spent watching TV could augment the risk of heart disease by 26% in youthful adults.

Previous studies have examined the effect of TV viewing on the risk of cardiovascular disease, but they have focused mainly on middle-aged and older people, and the follow-up periods have been relatively low.

The latest study, however, is a large-scale study of more than 4,000 youthful adults between the ages of 18 and 30. To estimate the long-term risks of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke from watching TV, researchers followed the participants for 30 years.

The results, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that people who spent more time watching TV after the age of 20 had a higher risk of developing cardiovascular problems later in life.

Each additional hour spent watching TV daily at age 23 increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 26% and the risk of cardiovascular disease by 16%. And each additional hour of daily TV viewing each year increases the risk even more: 55% for coronary heart disease, 58% for stroke, and 32% for cardiovascular disease.

According to the study, youth is “an vital window for intervening in television viewing habits to prevent adverse cardiovascular outcomes.”

“In this prospective cohort study, increased television viewing in youthful adulthood and annual increases in television viewing in middle adulthood were associated with incident premature cardiovascular disease, particularly coronary heart disease. Teenage adulthood as well as middle adulthood may be vital periods for promoting well television viewing patterns,” the researchers wrote.

“Our findings suggest that the amount of time youthful adults spend in front of screens may significantly impact their risk of developing stern heart disease later in life. More screen time may displace vital activities such as sleep and physical activity. This highlights the importance of promoting well screen habits early in life to prevent future heart disease and stroke,” said lead study author Jason Nagata, Ph.D. press release.