Too much screen time may double cancer, mortality risk of already unhealthy people

Associations of discretionary screen time with mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer are attenuated by strength, fitness and physical activity: findings from the UK Biobank study.

Background

Discretionary screen time (time spent viewing a television or computer screen during leisure time) is an important contributor to total sedentary behaviour, which is associated with increased risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to determine whether the associations of screen time with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality were modified by levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, grip strength or physical activity.

Methods

In total, 390,089 participants (54% women) from the UK Biobank were included in this study. All-cause mortality, CVD and cancer incidence and mortality were the main outcomes. Discretionary television (TV) viewing, personal computer (PC) screen time and overall screen time (TV + PC time) were the exposure variables. Grip strength, fitness and physical activity were treated as potential effect modifiers.

Results

Altogether, 7420 participants died, and there were 22,210 CVD events, over a median of 5.0 years follow-up (interquartile range 4.3 to 5.7; after exclusion of the first 2 years from baseline in the landmark analysis). All discretionary screen-time exposures were significantly associated with all health outcomes. The associations of overall discretionary screen time with all-cause mortality and incidence of CVD and cancer were strongest amongst participants in the lowest tertile for grip strength (all-cause mortality hazard ratio per 2-h increase in screen time (1.31 [95% confidence interval: 1.22–1.43], p < 0.0001; CVD 1.21 [1.13–1.30], p = 0.0001; cancer incidence 1.14 [1.10–1.19], p < 0.0001) and weakest amongst those in the highest grip-strength tertile (all-cause mortality 1.04 [0.95–1.14], p = 0.198; CVD 1.05 [0.99–1.11], p = 0.070; cancer 0.98 [0.93–1.05], p = 0.771). Similar trends were found for fitness (lowest fitness tertile: all-cause mortality 1.23 [1.13–1.34], p = 0.002 and CVD 1.10 [1.02–1.22], p = 0.010; highest fitness tertile: all-cause mortality 1.12 [0.96–1.28], p = 0.848 and CVD 1.01 [0.96–1.07], p = 0.570). Similar findings were found for physical activity for all-cause mortality and cancer incidence.

Conclusions

The associations between discretionary screen time and adverse health outcomes were strongest in those with low grip strength, fitness and physical activity and markedly attenuated in those with the highest levels of grip strength, fitness and physical activity. Thus, if these associations are causal, the greatest benefits from health promotion interventions to reduce discretionary screen time may be seen in those with low levels of strength, fitness and physical activity.

Read the Research

 

References:

  1. Warburton DER, Nicol CW, Bredin SSD. Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence. Can Med Assoc J. 2006;174(6):801–9.

    Article Google Scholar

  2. 2.

    Wilmot EG, Edwardson CL, Achana FA, Davies MJ, Gorely T, Gray LJ, Khunti K, Yates T, Biddle SJH. Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2012;55(11):2895–905.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  3. 3.

    Javier Basterra-Gortari F, Bes-Rastrollo M, Gea A, Maria Nunez-Cordoba J, Toledo E, Angel Martinez-Gonzalez M. Television Viewing, Computer Use, Time Driving and All-Cause Mortality: The SUN Cohort. J Am Heart Assoc. 2014;3(3):e000864.

    Article Google Scholar

  4. 4.

    Wijndaele K, Sharp SJ, Wareham NJ, Brage S. Mortality Risk Reductions from Substituting Screen Time by Discretionary Activities. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017;49(6):1111–9.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  5. 5.

    Kodama S, Saito K, Tanaka S, Maki M, Yachi Y, Asumi M, Sugawara A, Totsuka K, Shimano H, Ohashi Y, et al. Cardiorespiratory Fitness as a Quantitative Predictor of All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events in Healthy Men and Women A Meta-analysis. JAMA. 2009;301(19):2024–35.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  6. 6.

    Leong DP, Teo KK, Rangarajan S. Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Lancet. 2015;386(9990):266–73.

  7. 7.

    Yates T, Zaccardi F, Dhalwani NN, Davies MJ, Bakrania K, Celis-Morales CA, Gill JMR, Franks PW, Khunti K. Association of walking pace and handgrip strength with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: a UK Biobank observational study. Eur Heart J. 2017;1(1):ehx449.

    Google Scholar

  8. 8.

    Celis-Morales CA, Petermann F, Hui L, Lyall DM, Iliodromiti S, McLaren J, Anderson J, Welsh P, Mackay DF, Pell JP, et al. Associations Between Diabetes and Both Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality Are Modified by Grip Strength: Evidence From UK Biobank, a Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study. Diabetes Care. 2017;40(12):1710–8.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  9. 9.

    Celis-Morales C, Lyall DM, Anderson J, Pell JP, Sattar N, Gill J. The association between physical activity and risk of mortality is modulated by grip strength and cardiorespiratory fitness: evidence from 498,135 UK-Biobank participants. Eur Heart J. 2016;38(2):116–22.

    PubMed Central Google Scholar

  10. 10.

    Ekelund U, Steene-Johannessen J, Brown WJ, Fagerland MW, Owen N, Powell KE, Bauman A, Lee IM. Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women. Lancet.

  11. 11.

    Owen N, Healy GN, Matthews CE, Dunstan DW. Too Much Sitting: The Population Health Science of Sedentary Behavior. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2010;38(3):105–13.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  12. 12.

    Dunstan DW, Howard B, Healy GN, Owen N. Too much sitting – A health hazard. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2012;97(3):368–76.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  13. 13.

    Collins R. What makes UK Biobank special? Lancet. 2012;379(9822):1173–4.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  14. 14.

    Palmer LJ. UK Biobank: bank on it. Lancet. 2007;369(9578):1980–2.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  15. 15.

    Sudlow C, Gallacher J, Allen N, Beral V, Burton P, Danesh J, Downey P, Elliott P, Green J, Landray M, et al. UK Biobank: An Open Access Resource for Identifying the Causes of a Wide Range of Complex Diseases of Middle and Old Age. PLoS Med. 2015;12(3):e1001779.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  16. 16.

    Guo W, Bradbury KE, Reeves GK, Key TJ. Physical activity in relation to body size and composition in women in UK Biobank. Ann Epidemiol. 2015;25(6):406–13.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  17. 17.

    Guidelines for Data Processing and Analysis of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) – Short Form, Version 2.0 [www.ipaq.ki.se]. Accessed 27 Mar 2017.

  18. 18.

    Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001;37(1):153–6.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  19. 19.

    Medicine ACoS. Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 9th Edition edn. Baltimore: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippinoctt, Williams & Wilkins; 2014.

    Google Scholar

  20. 20.

    Swain DP. Energy cost calculations for exercise prescription – An update. Sports Med. 2000;30(1):17–22.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  21. 21.

    Galante J, Adamska L, Young A, Young H, Littlejohns TJ, Gallacher J, Allen N. The acceptability of repeat Internet-based hybrid diet assessment of previous 24-h dietary intake: administration of the Oxford WebQ in UK Biobank. Br J Nutr. 2015;115(4):681–6.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  22. 22.

    Anderson JJ, Celis-Morales CA, Mackay DF, Iliodromiti S, Lyall DM, Sattar N, Gill JMR, Pell JP. Adiposity among 132 479 UK Biobank participants; contribution of sugar intake vs other macronutrients. Int J Epidemiol. 2016;

  23. 23.

    Townsend P, Phillimore M, Beattie A. Health and Deprivation: Inequality and the North. London: Croom Helm Ltd; 1988.

    Google Scholar

  24. 24.

    WHO. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation. In: World Health Organization technical report series, vol. 894; 2000. p. i–xii. 1–253.

    Google Scholar

  25. 25.

    Department of Health. Start Active, Stay Active: a report on physical activity for health from the four home countries’ Chief Medical Officers. Norwich: Department of Health; 2011.

    Google Scholar

  26. 26.

    Roberts HC, Denison HJ, Martin HJ, Patel HP, Syddall H, Cooper C, Sayer AA. A review of the measurement of grip strength in clinical and epidemiological studies: towards a standardised approach. Age Ageing. 2011;40(4):423–9.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  27. 27.

    Frederiksen H, Gaist D, Petersen HC, Hjelmborg J, McGue M, Vaupel JW, Christensen K. Hand grip strength: A phenotype suitable for identifying genetic variants affecting mid- and late-life physical functional. Genet Epidemiol. 2002;23(2):110–22.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  28. 28.

    Bouchard C. Genomic predictors of trainability. Exp Physiol. 2012;97(3):347–52.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  29. 29.

    Willems SM, Wright DJ, Day FR, Trajanoska K, Joshi PK, Morris JA, Matteini AM, Garton FC, Grarup N, Oskolkov N, et al. Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness. Nat Commun. 2017;8:16015.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central CAS Google Scholar

  30. 30.

    Wisloff U, Najjar SM, Ellingsen O, Haram PM, Swoap S, Al-Share Q, Fernstrom M, Rezaei K, Lee SJ, Koch LG, et al. Cardiovascular risk factors emerge after artificial selection for low aerobic capacity. Science. 2005;307(5708):418–20.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  31. 31.

    Koch LG, Kemi OJ, Qi N, Leng SX, Bijma P, Gilligan LJ, Wilkinson JE, Wisloff H, Hoydal MA, Rolim N, et al. Intrinsic Aerobic Capacity Sets a Divide for Aging and Longevity. Circ Res. 2011;109(10):1162–U1151.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central CAS Google Scholar

  32. 32.

    Holten MK, Zacho M, Gaster M, Juel C, Wojtaszewski JFP, Dela F. Strength training increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake, GLUT4 content, and insulin signaling in skeletal muscle in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes. 2004;53(2):294–305.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  33. 33.

    Cornelissen VA, Fagard RH, Coeckelberghs E, Vanhees L. Impact of Resistance Training on Blood Pressure and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors A Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials. Hypertension. 2011;58(5):950–U564.

    Article PubMed CAS Google Scholar

  34. 34.

    Bohannon RW, Magasi SR, Bubela DJ, Wang Y-C, Gershon RC. Grip and knee extension muscle strength reflect a common construct among adults. Muscle Nerve. 2012;46(4):555–8.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  35. 35.

    Ekelund U, Steene-Johannessen J, Brown WJ, Fagerland MW, Owen N, Powell KE, Bauman A, Lee IM. Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women. Lancet. 2016;388:1302–10.

  36. 36.

    Bauman A, Ainsworth BE, Sallis JF, Hagstromer M, Craig CL, Bull FC, Pratt M, Venugopal K, Chau J, Sjostrom M, et al. The Descriptive Epidemiology of Sitting A 20-Country Comparison Using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Am J Prev Med. 2011;41(2):228–35.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  37. 37.

    Fry A, Littlejohns TJ, Sudlow C, Doherty N, Adamska L, Sprosen T, Collins R, Allen NE. Comparison of Sociodemographic and Health-Related Characteristics of UK Biobank Participants with the General Population. Am J Epidemiol. 2017;1(1):1–26.

    Google Scholar

  38. 38.

    Swanson JM. The UK Biobank and selection bias. Lancet. 2012;380(9837):110.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  39. 39.

    Lee PH, Macfarlane DJ, Lam TH, Stewart SM. Validity of the international physical activity questionnaire short form (IPAQ-SF): A systematic review. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011;8:115.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  40. 40.

    Helmerhorst HJF, Brage S, Warren J, Besson H, Ekelund U. A systematic review of reliability and objective criterion-related validity of physical activity questionnaires. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2012;9:103.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

  41. 41.

    Wijndaele K, Brage S, Besson H, Khaw K-T, Sharp SJ, Luben R, Wareham NJ, Ekelund U. Television viewing time independently predicts all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: the EPIC Norfolk Study. Int J Epidemiol. 2011;40(1):150–9.

    Article PubMed Google Scholar

  42. 42.

    Celis-Morales CA, Perez-Bravo F, Ibañez L, Salas C, Bailey ME, Gill JM. Objective vs. self-reported physical activity and sedentary time: effects of measurement method on relationships with risk biomarkers. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e36345.

    Article PubMed PubMed Central CAS Google Scholar

Click to access the login or register cheese