The more you watch TV, the less healthy you will be as you grow older, Harvard study finds

Harvard researchers link more time sitting and watching TV with a lower chance of growing old in good health

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Sitting on the couch watching TV has been linked to worse health in old age in a recent Harvard study, which recommends replacing TV time with physical activities, although even sleeping is better. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:15am, 26 Jun 2024

Before you settle in to binge the new season of your favourite series or watch your team go for the gold at the Paris Olympics, think twice about the amount of time you spend on the couch in front of the TV. Your future self may thank you.

A new study by Harvard researchers links sitting and watching television to the likelihood of reaching old age in a state of good health: the more time spent doing the former, the lower the odds of achieving the latter.

The problem does not seem to be with sitting in general. After controlling for a variety of risk factors such as diet quality and smoking history, the researchers found no relationship between time spent in a chair at work and the chances of ageing well.

Ditto for sitting in cars or at home doing something besides watching TV, such as reading, eating meals or paying bills.

For every additional two hours spent in front of the TV, the chance of meeting the researchers’ definition of healthy ageing dropped by 12 per cent. Photo: Shutterstock

Yet for every additional two hours spent in front of the TV, a person’s chance of meeting the researchers’ definition of healthy ageing declined by 12 per cent, according to their study, published in JAMA Network Open.