Melbourne: The time you spend each day driving may affect the size of your waist, body weight and could even lead to heart problems, a new study has claimed.
Researchers from the Institute of Health and Ageing from the Australian Catholic University found that people who spend an hour or more in the day driving their vehicles are on average 2.3 kilogrammes heavier compared to those who spend 15 minutes or less driving their cars.
They are also more likely to develop heart problems, researchers said.
These people also have waists which are 1.5 centimetres wider than those of individuals who drive their cars for only a short period of time, ‘Tech Times’ reported.
Researchers studied the health status and driving habits of more than 2,000 adult Australians between 34 to 65 years.
They took into consideration the participants’ diet, level of physical activity, consumption of alcohol and various socio-economic factors.
Takemi Sugiyama, who led the research, said that while previous studies have shown the impact of spending time watching television on human health, there had yet to be one that showed the health effects of spending too much time
driving or riding vehicles.
According to him, using public transport is significantly different compared to driving since it does not necessarily involve just sitting inside a vehicle. It may also require having to walk to and from public transport stops.
ANI