Each Hour Of Television Viewing Associated With 144 Fewer Steps

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Each Hour Of Television Viewing Associated With 144 Fewer Steps

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=48275

A study of low-income housing residents has documented that the more

television people say they watched, the less active they were,

researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues report.

The findings of television's effects on physical activity are the

first to be based on objective measurements using pedometers, rather

than the study subjects' memories of their physical activity, say the

researchers. The study was published online by the American Journal

of Public Health on July 27 and later in the journal's September 2006

issue.

" Clearly the more time a person spends watching television the less

time they have to be physically active, and in many lower income

communities, other factors might have influenced the study

participants' decisions to spend time watching television, " said the

paper's lead author, , PhD, of Dana-Farber's Center for

Community-Based Research and the Harvard School of Public Health.

These factors may include fear of street crime and poor maintenance

of parks and playground equipment, which create barriers to outdoor

activities. Older people were particularly prone to staying indoors

and watching television, which reflects their increasing isolation in

society today, said.

The study involved 486 low-income housing residents in Boston. The

study participants tended to be black or Hispanic, older, and female.

Two-thirds were overweight or obese, 37 percent had less than a high-

school education.

To avoid the potential inaccuracies associated with self-reported

physical activity, the researchers arranged to have the study

participants wear pedometers during their waking hours to count the

number of steps they took every day for five days. The pedometers

were " blinded " to prevent the participants from knowing how many

steps they had taken and possibly altering their normal patterns of

activity. The participants also reported the number of hours they

watched television.

Results showed that the participants watched an average of 3.6 hours

a day of television, with some reporting spending no time watching

television while others watched as much as 14.5 hours on weekdays and

19 hours on weekend days.

Researchers have estimated that 10,000 steps a day measured with a

pedometer roughly approximates recommended daily activity levels. In

the current study, on an average day, each hour of television viewing

was associated with 144 fewer steps walked - or an average of 520

fewer steps a day for those who spent 3.6 hours in front of the

television.

In addition, for each hour of television they watched, participants

were 16 percent less likely to achieve the 10,000-step-per-day goal.

For those who watched the 3.6-hour-a-day mean value, their odds of

walking 10,000 steps a day were 47 percent less than non-television-

watchers.

The study findings represent " a piece of a larger puzzle for us - how

do we help people to become more active? " said . Simply

telling people not to watch television " doesn't work terribly well, "

he explained, and often leads to substituting other sedentary

activities like reading and computer use.

Going forward, " we need to do a better job of understanding the

factors that lead people to be physically active, "

said. " This is an important area of research, particularly because

the impact of physical inactivity disproportionately affects the

health of lower income Americans. "