Takeaway
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This study suggests that meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes/week of vigorous-intensity PA) may marginally ameliorate the association between television (TV) viewing and cardiovascular (CVD) risk.
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2.5 hours or more per day of television viewing confers a higher CVD risk as indicated by a higher mean body mass index (BMI) and mean 30-year Framingham risk score.
Why this matters
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Findings highlight the independent association between TV viewing and CVD risk and suggest that reducing daily TV viewing to less than 2.5 hours, even in physically active adults, is a clinical and public health priority.
Study design
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This population-based, cross-sectional study included 340,146 adults using data from the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010.
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Primary outcome: CVD risk measured by the 30-year Framingham risk score.
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Funding: University of Delaware Research Foundation and others.
Key results
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Linear regression models indicated that every additional hour of TV viewing was associated with a 3% increase in 30-year CVD risk (adjusted Coefficient [aCoeff], 0.03; Cohen’s d [d]=0.16; P<.0001) and meeting PA recommendations correlated with a 0.2% decrease in CVD risk (aCoeff, −0.002; d=0.01; P<.01).
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The interaction between TV viewing with meeting PA guidelines marginally correlated with CVD risk (aCoeff, 0.0010; d=0.01; P=.0142).
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Every additional hour of TV viewing per day correlated with a 0.54 increase in BMI (aCoeff, 0.54; d=0.13; P<.0001) and meeting PA recommendations correlated with a 0.75 decrease in BMI (aCoeff, −0.75; d=0.17; P<.0001).
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The interaction between TV viewing with meeting PA guidelines was not significantly associated with BMI (aCoeff, 0.0002; d<0.01; P=.99).
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In regression tree models, TV viewing for >2.5 vs <2.5 hours/day was associated with pronounced increases in CVD risk (Framingham risk score: 0.5 [standard deviation [SD], 0.18] vs 0.42 [SD, 0.18] and BMI: 27.86 [SD, 4.60] vs 26.26 [SD, 4.20]).
Limitations
Patterson F, Mitchell JA, Dominick G, Lozano AJ, Huang L, Hanlon AL. Does meeting physical activity recommendations ameliorate association between television viewing with cardiovascular disease risk? A cross-sectional, population-based analysis. BMJ Open. 2020;10(6):e036507. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036507. PMID: 32532775. Full text.
This clinical summary first appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.

