Posted June 22, 2017 18:54:51

Photo: Researchers say excessive TV watching needs to be addressed earlier rather than later in life. (HBO)

So you want to binge watch the Game of Thrones series now to get ready for the release of season seven next month?

You may want to rethink those plans.

A new study from the University of Queensland (UQ) has found the amount of time older adults spend watching TV can have serious health impacts in their future, including on their ability to live independently in their later years.

Using data from almost 2,000 participants, excessive TV watching has been linked to a range of negative health consequences and behaviours, including increased snacking.

UQ School of Public Health PhD candidate Natasha Reid said her research found participants aged between 47–85 who watched five hours or less of TV a week had significantly better lower-body muscle strength than those who spent more than 30 hours a week in front of the box.

"On a knee extensor strength test, the consistently low TV watchers performed better than most other groups," she said.

Ms Reid said the research indicated that excessive TV watching needed to be addressed earlier rather than later in life, as this could make a difference when it came to independent living.

She said the impact of sitting time on physical body function would need to be examined in future studies.

The study found those of older age, with higher BMI and smoking were associated with higher TV time.

Ms Reid said action needs to be taken to counteract the negative effects of binge-watching.

"There's already evidence that too much watching of TV and sitting in general is really bad for your cardiovascular health and mental health, but certainly it also leads to different body compositions and it affects things, in terms of physical functions, such as balance and gait speed," she said.

"The negative health effect of excessive TV time ... indicate that public health messages should remain focused on reducing and interrupting long bouts of sitting."

Almost a third of participants fell into the moderate-increasing range, increasing their weekly TV watching from about 10 hours a week to about 20 hours.

People who watched less than five hours of television a week accounted for 9.7 per cent of participants, while 5.2 per cent were in the highest TV consumption group of more than 30 hours a week.

Ms Reid said she found groups that moderately increased or moderately decreased their viewing habits over the 12 years of the study showed no difference in physical health.

The research is published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Topics: health, research, television, qld, brisbane-4000