Association between television viewing time and risk of incident stroke in a general population: Results from the REGARDS study

•Sedentary behaviour is now an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease but the effect on stroke risk is unknown.•We assessed pre-stroke TV viewing habits for 22 257 adults in the REGARDS study.•We followed up participants for incident stroke occurrence over ~ 7 years.•Watching ≥ 4 hrs of TV/video/day at baseline was associated with a 37% rise in stroke incidence at follow-up.•This effect was attenuated by employment status, education and income.

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between TV/video viewing, as a measure of sedentary behavior, and risk of incident stroke in a large prospective cohort of men and women.MethodsThis analysis involved 22,257 participants from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study who reported at baseline the amount of time spent watching TV/video daily. Suspected stroke events were identified at six-monthly telephone calls and were physician-adjudicated. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine risk of stroke at follow-up.ResultsDuring 7.1 years of follow-up, 727 incident strokes occurred. After adjusting for demographic factors, watching TV/video ≥ 4 h/day (30% of the sample) was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.37 increased risk of all stroke (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.10-1.71) and incident ischemic stroke (hazard ratio 1.35, CI 1.06-1.72). This association was attenuated by socioeconomic factors such as employment status, education and income.ConclusionsThese results suggest that while TV/video viewing is associated with increased stroke risk, the effect of TV/video viewing on stroke risk may be explained through other risk factors.