Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec 19:10:138.
doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-10-138.

Educational inequalities in TV viewing among older adults: a mediation analysis of ecological factors

Katrien De Cocker  1 , Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Megan Teychenne, Sarah McNaughton, Jo Salmon
Affiliations

Educational inequalities in TV viewing among older adults: a mediation analysis of ecological factors

Katrien De Cocker et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. .

Abstract

Background: 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. 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.

Methods: In 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).

Results: Multiple 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.

Conclusions: Interventions 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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Dunstan DW, Thorp AA, Healy GN. Prolonged sitting: is it a distinct coronary heart disease risk factor? Curr Opin Cardiol. 2011;10(5):412–419. doi: 10.1097/HCO.0b013e3283496605. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Patel A, Bernstein L, Deka A, Feigelson S, Campbell P, Gapstur S, Colditz GA, Thun MJ. Leisure time spent sitting in relation to total mortality in a prospective cohort of US adults. Am J Epidemiol. 2010;10:419–429. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwq155. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hamilton M, Healy G, Dunstan D, Zderic T, Owen N. Too little exercise and too much sitting: Inactivity physiology and the need for new recommendations on sedentary behavior. Cur Cardiovasc Risk Rep. 2008;10:292–298. doi: 10.1007/s12170-008-0054-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Owen N, Bauman A, Brown W. Too much sitting: a novel and important predictor of chronic disease risk? Br J Sports Med. 2009;10:81–83. - PubMed
    1. Healy G, Dunstan D, Salmon J, Cerin E, Shaw J, Zimmet P, Owen N. Breaks in sedentary time beneficial associations with metabolic risk. Diabet Care. 2008;10:661–666. doi: 10.2337/dc07-2046. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types