THURSDAY, Aug. 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Greater television viewing in young adulthood is associated with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life, according to a study published online Aug. 22 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Jason M. Nagata, M.D., from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues examined the relationship between level and annualized changes in television viewing from young adulthood to middle age and the incidence of premature CVD events before age 60 years. The analysis included 4,318 Black and White men and women (ages 18 to 30 years at baseline) participating in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study.

Over 30 years, the researchers found that every one-hour increase in daily hours of television viewing at age 23 years was associated with higher odds of incident coronary heart disease (CHD; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.26) and incident CVD events (aOR, 1.16) before age 60 years. Similarly, each increased hour of daily television viewing annually was associated with higher annual odds of CHD incidence (aOR, 1.55), stroke incidence (aOR, 1.58), and CVD incidence (aOR, 1.32). The association was modified by race and sex with associations at age 23 years and later for CHD, heart failure, and stroke, with White men most consistently having significant associations.

“Young adulthood represents an important window for early intervention and a time in which individuals establish television viewing behaviors for the rest of adulthood,” the authors write.

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