THE ESSENTIAL
- Spending less time watching TV and more time on other activities could help prevent major depressive disorder, a new study suggests.
- The effect is particularly visible in people in their forties.
- Replacing screen time with physical activity is most effective in reducing the risk of depression.
According to the 2024 Public Health France barometer, 15.6% of French people aged 18 to 79 have experienced at least one marked depressive episode in the last 12 months. The prevalence is also higher among 18-29 year olds, at around 22%. However, a new study, published in European Psychiatry, highlights a simple action to help reduce the risk of depression: reduce the daily time spent in front of the television by one hour.
Depression: one hour less TV per day is enough to have effects
Spending less time on the couch watching TV is good for your health. It hasn’t been a secret for many years. However, researcher Rosa Palazuelos-González from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) wanted to evaluate the impact of this change of habit on mental health. To do this, she assessed the lifestyle and mental health of 65,454 adults who were not suffering from depression at the start of the study. The participants were for four years.
“We found that reducing the time spent in front of the television by 60 minutes and devoting it to other activities moderated the probability of developing major depression by 11%”explains the scientist in a communiqué. “For the 90 and 120 minute reassignments, this probability decrease reached 25.91%.”
The beneficial effect of reducing screen time was particularly marked among people in their forties. In this age group, replacing one hour of television per day with other activities reduced the risk of depression by 18.78%. If the reduction was 90 minutes the risk fell by 29%. People who gave up two hours of TV saw their risks drop by 43%.
Older adults and young adults benefited the least from the drop in screen time. Among seniors, only the practice of a sport made it possible to observe a measurable difference. “Replacing 30 minutes of television with sport reduced the probability of depression from 1.01% to 0.71%. With 60 minutes, the risk fell to 0.63%, and with 90 minutes, to 0.56%”underline the authors in their press release.
Mental health: cleaning is no better than watching TV
The study showed that almost all activities replacing television were associated with a reduced risk of depression, with one exception: cleaning! “Replacing just 30 minutes of television with household chores did not result in significant change”emphasize the researchers.
The most interesting new habits were physical activity: spending 30 minutes less in front of a screen doing sport reduced the risk of depression by 18%. Across all age groups studied, physical activity showed the greatest reduction in the likelihood of developing major depression.
Sleep followed with a 9% drop. Leisure or transport activities, for their part, reduced the risks by 8%.
On average, the French spent 4h14 per day in front of the TV as well as watching live programs, replay or videos on demand in 2025. This study reminds us that it is good to leave the screens for a while to devote oneself to other activities.
date:2026-02-15 01:26:00
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