Health Spain , Salamanca, Tuesday, April 09 of 2013, 15:34

Cardiovascular functioning directly linked to time spent watching TV

Study conducted with 732 adult individuals in six Spanish primary health care centers

JPA/DICYT A study conducted by six primary health care centers in Barcelona, Zaragoza, Cuenca, Bilbao, Valladolid and Salamanca has found a direct relationship between television watching number of hours and some cardiovascular health parameters. The more adults watch TV, the worst their vascular functions are, according to results published in the American Journal of Hypertension.


These data are drawn from a large study on healthy lifestyles, as José Ignacio Recio, researcher from the Centro de Salud La Alamedilla (Salamanca, Spain), explained to DiCYT. This study was conducted with 732 individuals from 20 to 80 years old who answered a questionnaire; some of the questions were related to sedentary lifestyle, such as watching TV. This information was matched with an index called PAIx75, designed from arterial pressure measurements.

 

To perform this assessment, novel equipment capable of registering various data was used, for example, blood pressure is measured every 15 minutes in a 24 hour period, tonometry is also used to register blood pressure. With this information, the equipment sets PAIx75 values up and, the higher they are, the higher the arterial stiffness is and the worst the vascular functions are.


Researchers registered the number of hours dedicated to watch TV and divided them into three slots: less than 10 hours, 10 to 20 hours and more than 20 hours. Individuals in this last slot had much higher PAIx75 figures, so their cardiovascular health was clearly worse.


Putting Aside Other Factors

 

“We found a clear, direct and independent relationship discarding other factors such as age, sex, drug consumption, obesity and smoking habits”, as the researcher states. The comprehensive statistic analysis leaves no room for doubt and grants absolute validity to these findings, strengthening the idea that sedentary lifestyles lead to negative effects on cardiovascular health.


The research was conducted with data collected between 2010 and 2012 within the framework of a study called EVIDENT, sponsored by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III; the lifestyle of 1,553 patients was analyzed, so half of them were taken into account for these article results. These individuals, selected at random, are general practice patients that, in general terms, are in good health. In the near future, researchers from the six health care centers expect to publish other interesting results.

 

References
Recio-Rodriguez JI, Gomez-Marcos MA, Patino-Alonso MC, Romaguera-Bosch M, Grandes G, Menendez-Suarez M, Lema-Bartolome J, Gonzalez-Viejo N,Agudo-Conde C, Garcia-Ortiz L; EVIDENT Group. Association of television viewing time with central hemodynamic parameters and the radial augmentation index in adults. American Journal of Hypertension, 2013. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hps071