Just how much does watching TV affect your life expectancy?

Well, as a recently published finding by researchers at the University of Queensland and the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute shows – it’s a lot more impactful than you may have thought.

Using existing data and the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study the researchers found that the amount of TV viewed in Australia reduced life expectancy by 1.8 years for men and 1.5 years for women.

Australia is ranked 7th in daily average TV watching hours behind the UK, US, Italy, Germany, France and Ireland with research from Nielsen showing that Americans watch around 5 hours of TV per day.

The study found that those who spend a lifetime average of 6 hr/day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years less!

This means that on average, every single hour of TV viewed after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 min.

Sitting and watching TV therefore carries the same increased risk of dying as physical inactivity and obesity! Your workforce spends one third of their day at the office, often in a chair and unfortunately when they are getting home they are spending their nights in an equally inactive state.

These findings more than ever reinforce the need for organisations to implement wellness programs that break the sedentary lifestyles of their employees.

It’s imperative that a wellness program addresses physical inactivity beyond the boundaries of the workplace to create genuine behavioural change that is meaningful, effective and sustainable.