Household devices (e.g.,
television,
car,
computer) are common in highincome countries, and their use has been linked to
obesity and
type 2 diabetes mellitus.We hypothesized that
device ownership is associated with
obesity and diabetes and that these effects are explained through reduced
physical activity, increased
sitting time and increased
energy intake.We performed a
cross sectional analysis using data from the Prospective UrbanRural
Epidemiology study involving 153 996
adults from high, upper-middle, lower-middle and
low income countries. We used multilevel regression models to account for
clustering at the
community and country levels.
Ownership of a
household deviceincreased from low to high
income countries (4% to 83% for all 3
devices) and was associated with decreased
physical activity and increased
sitting, dietary
energy intake, body mass indexand
waist circumference. There was anincreased odds of
obesity and diabetes with the
ownership of any 1
household device compared to no
device ownership (
obesity odds ratio [OR] 1.43, 95%
confidence interval [CI] 1.321.55;diabetes OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.281.50).
Ownership of a second
device increased the odds further but
ownership of a third
device did not. Subsequentadjustment for
lifestyle factors modestlyattenuated these
associations. Of the 3
devices,
ownership of a
television had the strongest
association with
obesity (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.291.49) and diabetes (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.231.44).When stratified by country
income level, the odds of
obesity and diabetes when owning all 3
devices was greatest in
low income countries (
obesity OR 3.15, 95% CI 2.33-4.25; diabetes OR1.97, 95% CI 1.532.53) and ecreased through country
income levels such that we did not detect an
association in high
income countries...