Apparently, while people are watching television rather than walking around, they take fewer steps than they would if they were walking around rather than watching television.
So claims a daring study published yesterday, July 27, 2006, online in the American Journal of Public Health. The report couches things in slightly technical language:
In multivariable analyses, each hour of television viewing on an average day was associated with 144 fewer steps per day and a decreased likelihood of accumulating 10000 steps per day.
A press release issued by the Dana Farber Cancer Institute explains it for laypersons, under the headline “Study suggests TV-watching lowers physical activity.”
(Thanks to investigator Sam Ripley for bringing this to our attention.)