Abstract
BackgroundTelevision (TV) viewing, a prevalent leisure-time sedentary behaviour independently related to negative health outcomes, appears to be higher in less educated and older adults. In order to tackle the social inequalities, evidence is needed about the underlying mechanisms of the association between education and TV viewing. The present purpose was to examine the potential mediating role of personal, social and physical environmental factors in the relationship between education and TV viewing among Australian 55–65 year-old adults.MethodsIn 2010, self-reported data was collected among 4082 adults (47.6% men) across urban and rural areas of Victoria, for the Wellbeing, Eating and Exercise for a Long Life (WELL) study. The mediating role of personal (body mass index [BMI], quality of life), social (social support from family and friends, social participation at proximal level, and interpersonal trust, social cohesion, personal safety at distal level) and physical environmental (neighbourhood aesthetics, neighbourhood physical activity environment, number of televisions) factors in the association between education and TV viewing time was examined using the product-of-coefficients test of MacKinnon based on multilevel linear regression analyses (conducted in 2012).ResultsMultiple mediating analyses showed that BMI (p ≤ 0.01), personal safety (p < 0.001), neighbourhood aesthetics (p ≤ 0.01) and number of televisions (p ≤ 0.01) partly explained the educational inequalities in older adult’s TV viewing. No proximal social factors mediated the education-TV viewing association.ConclusionsInterventions aimed to reduce TV viewing should focus on personal (BMI) and environmental (personal safety, neighbourhood aesthetics, number of televisions) factors, in order to overcome educational inequalities in sedentary behaviour among older adults.
Highlights
Television (TV) viewing, a prevalent leisure-time sedentary behaviour independently related to negative health outcomes, appears to be higher in less educated and older adults
TV viewing time according to education Overall, participants reported 3.33 (SD = 2.44) hours of TV viewing per day
The current results showed that these educational inequalities in TV viewing were partly mediated by certain ecological factors, namely Body Mass Index (BMI), personal safety, neighbourhood aesthetics, and the number of televisions in the house
Summary
Television (TV) viewing, a prevalent leisure-time sedentary behaviour independently related to negative health outcomes, appears to be higher in less educated and older adults. Several studies, including a recent review [13], have shown that TV viewing is related to socio-economic variables, suggesting that less educated adults are more likely to watch TV compared to adults with a higher level of education [13,14,15,16,17]. This may place less educated people at greater risk of premature morbidity and mortality [13,14,15,16,17]. In order to overcome educational differences in TV viewing among this older age group, information is needed about the factors influencing this relationship
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