Association between leisure sedentary behaviors and hypertension risk: A prospective cohort study and two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis in Europeans

This study aimed to investigate the potential causal relationship between domain-specific sedentary behaviors (including television watching, computer use, and driving) and hypertension risk in European populations. Initially, we conducted a multivariable Cox regression analysis to evaluate the associations between domain-specific sedentary behaviors and the risk of developing hypertension using data from 261,829 hypertension-free participants in the UK Biobank. To validate the findings of observational analysis, we employed two-sample univariable mendelian randomization (UVMR) analysis utilizing summary statistics from genome-wide association study conducted on European populations. We then performed multivariable mendelian randomization (MVMR) analysis to account for the influence of the risk factors for hypertension. In this prospective observational analysis, individuals who spent >3 h per day watching television had significantly higher risk of developing hypertension (HR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.20–1.29, P < 0.001) compared to those who watched television for 0–1 h per day. The mendelian randomization analysis provided consistent evidence for a causal relationship between prolonged television watching time and hypertension risk (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.25–1.69, P < 0.001; all PMVMR < 0.05) in both UVMR and MVMR results. No significant associations were found between computer use, driving behaviors and the risk of hypertension in either the observational or UVMR/MVMR analyses. These findings provide evidence for a causal effect specifically linking higher television watching time to an increased risk of hypertension and indicate the potential effectiveness of reducing television viewing time as a preventive measure to mitigate the risk of hypertension.