TV Watching Lifespan Calculator
According to a recent study, TV watching can reduce your lifespan by up to several years! Calculate how your TV viewing habits may be impacting your life.
Required entry field.
Enter full hours (e.g. 2 for 2 hours of tv viewing); Use .5 to designate half hour (e.g. 2.5 hours);
Enter the average number of hours you watch tv for each weekday and for each weekend day. For example, if you watch about 3 hours of tv Monday through Friday, enter 3 (and not 15).
According to the study Television viewing time and reduced life expectancy by J Lennert Veerman at The University of Queensland, Australia and several other researchers, for each hour of TV watched over the age of 25, it is estimated* that life expectancy is reduced by 21.8 minutes. This means if you watch, on average, 3 hours of television a day, your lifespan is potentially reduced by a little over 1 hour per day. In a year, you would lose 398 hours which is equivalent to almost 17 days a year (2 weeks, 3 days). Compounded over many years, the researches found (based on 6 hours of TV a day), lifespan could be reduced by just under 5 years.
Plug in your tv watching pattern, and this calculator will show you how your viewing habits may potentially shorten your life. What is it about TV watching that might negatively impact your lifespan?
The culprit: couch-potatoism, also known as a sedentary lifestyle (ie. sitting too much), which can lead to cardiovascular disease.
While the researches conclude by indicating that additional study is needed to confirm that lifespan is actually reduced by close to 22 minutes per each hour of TV watched, and to review other similar sedentary behavoirs, such as sitting in cars, sitting at work and at the computer for long periods of time.
*It's important to the note that the study estimated the reduction in lifespan based on a life table analysis; it was not quantified.