A new study warns that women spending at least an hour daily on computer games are putting themselves at risk of becoming overweight.
Researchers found that women who play computer games two hours a day risk gaining more than 17 pounds after five years. The research is based on a study group of at least 2,500 women who participated in the study's surveys last 2007, 2008 and 2012.
"The prevalence of overweight among Swedish young adults has nearly doubled since the 1980s," the researchers, led by Sara Thomée of University of Gothenburg, said. "This development has been paralleled by the increased use of computers at work, at school and at leisure."
The group sent surveys to randomly selected participants ages 20 to 24, asking questions about health and demographic data including height and weight, lifestyle related questions and how long they use the computer for work, socializing and playing games. The data was then used to analyze whether there is a relation between computer usage for leisure and the body mass index (BMI), which is the measure of whether a person's weight is appropriate for their height.
Based on the results, women with normal BMI scores and played computer games at least an hour daily were more likely to become overweight in five years compared to others.
"The increased BMI in those who played computer games for more than two hours a day would for a young woman of average height and weight equal an additional weight gain of 3.7 kilos (around 8 pounds)," said Thomée.
She added that previous studies have also found that female gamers are reportedly more stressed and vulnerable to depression.
But why are women the ones more at risk to gain weight? Researchers believe that this is due to several contributing factors including diet, sleeping habits, the sedentary nature of using computers and that this period of inactivity seems to affect women more severely than men.
"The results should warrant attention for further research to confirm or mitigate the results. As overweight and obesity bring about negative consequences for health and quality of life, especially in females," the researchers concluded in their study. "This could be an important group to target for public health preventive strategies."
Being overweight can eventually lead to obesity, which is a growing problem all over the world. Being obese puts people at risk for developing many chronic health conditions like diabetes, stroke, heart problems and high blood pressure.
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