Five daily hours on his smartphone. This is the time it would take to increase its obesity risk by 43%, reveals a study presented at the Latin American conference of the American College of Cardiology, which was held in Cartagena (Colombia) from July 25 to 27. The phone addict would also be more likely to have lifestyle habits that are harmful to their cardiovascular healthshowed the results published by the Science Daily.
“Spending too much time in front of the smartphone facilitates sedentary behaviors, reduces the time for physical activity, which increases the risk of premature death, diabetes, heart disease, different types of cancer, osteoarticular discomfort and musculoskeletal symptoms -skeletal“, said the lead author of the Mirary Mantilla-Morrón survey, from the Simón Bolívar University in Barranquilla (Colombia).
Smartphone and unhealthy behaviors
The researchers analyzed data from 1,060 students from the Colombian University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. The study group consisted of 700 women and 360 men, with an average age of 20 years. Among women, 63.9% were likely to be overweight and 57.4% to be obese, compared to 36.1% and 42.6% respectively among men.
It was finally found that the risk of obesity increased by 43% if the person used their smartphone five hours or more a day. These users keen on their tool were moreover twice as likely to consume more sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, snacks and having less physical activity. In total, 26% of overweight subjects and 4.6% of obese subjects spent more than five hours on their device.
“It is important for the general population to know and be aware that, although mobile technology is undoubtedly attractive for its multiple functions (portability, comfort, access to countless services, source of information and entertainment) it should also be used to improve healthy habits and behaviors”concludes Mirary Mantilla-Morrón.
According to scientists, the time spent on the phone is actually a way to shine a light on our lack of physical activity. They therefore invite technophiles to reduce the duration of use of their connected objects, and thus to move more.
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