Watching too much television increases risk of depression

EVERY hour of television watched in a day increases a person’s risk of depression by 5 per cent, a study has found.

A sedentary lifestyle has previously been linked to a greater risk of mental health disorders but a review by scientists in China has confirmed a strong link between TV viewing time and depression. They reached their conclusions based on 16 scientific studies involving almost 250,000 participants.

The effect was found to be consistent and cumulative, with every hour of daily television time adding up and increasing the risk of depression.

For example, watching programmes for two hours increases the chance of depression by 10 per cent, while four hours of viewing leads to a 20 per cent greater risk.

Research suggests that people who watch the most television are 26 per cent more likely to be depressed than those who hardly ever switch on their set.

“We observed a linear positive association between television watching and depression,” the authors of the study from Fudan University said.

“For each one hour a day increase in television watching, the risk of depression was increased by 5 per cent.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dose–response meta-analysis to quantitatively examine the association of sedentary behaviour and television watching with depression in adults.”

A Spanish study run by University College London last year found that people who read or watch the most news coverage were most likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.

The new study is published in the