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Would this change your viewing habit - Is it sound science ?
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That report (or, more likely, the way that the media have interpreted it) confuses correlation with causation.
It's unsurprising that people who spend a great deal of time watching TV having shorter lifespans than those who don't. But the cause is far more likely to be a simple lack of exercise than actually viewing too many episodes of East Enders! (i.e.. it's the fact that people are physically inactive which leads to shorter lives, not what they're doing during those periods of physical inactivity).
An analogy:
With teenage girls, there's a fairly high correlation between smoking and early pregnancy. That doesn't mean that smoking makes someone pregnant; it simply shows that girls who are likely to break 'rules' about smoking are also quite likely to ignore society's 'rules' about engaging in under-age sex.
Chris
It's unsurprising that people who spend a great deal of time watching TV having shorter lifespans than those who don't. But the cause is far more likely to be a simple lack of exercise than actually viewing too many episodes of East Enders! (i.e.. it's the fact that people are physically inactive which leads to shorter lives, not what they're doing during those periods of physical inactivity).
An analogy:
With teenage girls, there's a fairly high correlation between smoking and early pregnancy. That doesn't mean that smoking makes someone pregnant; it simply shows that girls who are likely to break 'rules' about smoking are also quite likely to ignore society's 'rules' about engaging in under-age sex.
Chris
Actually it's not the media this time - check out the Abstract:
CONTEXT: Prolonged television (TV) viewing is the most prevalent and pervasive sedentary behavior in industrialized countries and has been associated with morbidity and mortality
It is however bad science for exactly the reason Chris mentions the root cause is sedentry behaviour.
Links between book reading, knitting and other less headline catching sedentary activities would doubtlessly be the same
I smell the desperation of a stalling academic career looking for media attention
CONTEXT: Prolonged television (TV) viewing is the most prevalent and pervasive sedentary behavior in industrialized countries and has been associated with morbidity and mortality
It is however bad science for exactly the reason Chris mentions the root cause is sedentry behaviour.
Links between book reading, knitting and other less headline catching sedentary activities would doubtlessly be the same
I smell the desperation of a stalling academic career looking for media attention
Check here for the Daily Mail oncology project
http://thedailymailon...roject.wordpress.com/
The guy started a list of everything the DM says gives or cures you cancer then realised he had bit off more than he could chew and gave up under an avalanche of "research" nearly 1,000 a year!
http://dailymailoncology.tumblr.com/
has picked up the gauntlet of tracking the Mail's obsession
http://thedailymailon...roject.wordpress.com/
The guy started a list of everything the DM says gives or cures you cancer then realised he had bit off more than he could chew and gave up under an avalanche of "research" nearly 1,000 a year!
http://dailymailoncology.tumblr.com/
has picked up the gauntlet of tracking the Mail's obsession
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