Obesity And Diabetes Increase If One Owns A car, TV And computer

Owning a TV, a car and a computer increases risks of diabetes and obesity in less developed countries. A conclusion coming from a large study published in CMAJ that has involved 153 996 participants from 17 high, lower-middle and low income countries.

For the analysis, the ownership of three specific devices was taken into account: a television, a car, a computer. Whose possession increased from 4% to 83% in low to high income regions.

Results have proved that reduced physical (-31%), increase in sitting (+21%) and in waist circumference (+ 9 cm)  were much more prominent in low income countries with the ownership of all three objects.

Consequently, researchers recorded higher risks of diabetes (from 4.7 % for no devices owned to 11.7% for the three possessed) and obesity(from 3.4% to 14.5%). On the other side, modest results were found in upper and low income countries.

What explains this difference is maybe the fact that richer countries are already aware of the effects of bad health habits tied to owning technological devices, what is relatively new instead in developing areas