Researchers have claimed that people who watch television for five or more hours per day have a higher risk of fatal pulmonary embolism than those people who watch it for two and a half hours.
Researcher Toru Shirakawa of the Osaka University said that a pulmonary embolism is a serious, sometimes fatal, lung-related vascular disease characterised by the sudden onset of symptoms such as chest pain or difficulty in breathing.
The study included 86,024 participants aged 40 to 79 years who completed a self administered questionnaire including information about average television watching time per day, which started between 1988 and 1990.
Length of television watching was divided into three groups: less than 2.5 hours, 2.5 to 4.9 hours and 5 or more hours per day.
According to the researchers, people whose average television viewing time was more than five hours per day had twice the risk of fatal pulmonary embolism as those who watched an average of less than two and a half hours daily.
The association was more prominent in people under 60 years of age in whom watching television more than five hours per day was associated with a six-fold risk of fatal pulmonary embolism compared to watching less than two and a half hours.
Shirakawa said that prolonged computer gaming had been associated with death from pulmonary embolism but to their knowledge a relationship with prolonged smartphone use has not yet been reported.
He concluded that public awareness of the risk of pulmonary embolism from lengthy leg immobility was essential.
