People who watch a lot of television may be at an increased risk of dying prematurely, according to a recent study Live Science reported.

Researchers found that adults who watch television for three or more hours each day were at twice the risk of an early death than those who watched less.

"Television viewing is a major sedentary behavior and there is an increasing trend toward all types of sedentary behaviors," said Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, the study's lead author and chair of the Department of Public Health at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. "Our findings are consistent with a range of previous studies where time spent watching television was linked to mortality."

For the study, researchers assessed more than 13,000 young and healthy Spanish university graduates to determine the association between three types of sedentary behaviors and risk of death from all causes: television viewing time, computer time and driving time.

The study participants were followed for an average of eight years.

Based on the findings, the risk of death was twofold higher for participants who reported watching three or more hours of television a day compared to those watching one hour or less. This twofold higher risk was also apparent after accounting for a wide array of other variables related to a higher risk of death.

They found no significant association between the time spent using a computer or driving and higher risk of premature death from all causes.

Martinez-Gonzalez said more studies are needed to determine the biological mechanisms explaining these associations.

"As the population ages, sedentary behaviors will become more prevalent, especially watching television, and this poses an additional burden on the increased health problems related to aging," he said. "Our findings suggest adults may consider increasing their physical activity, avoid long sedentary periods, and reduce television watching to no longer than one to two hours each day."

The findings were recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.