Less housework may result in weight gain

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COLUMBIA, S.C., March 2 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they compared the hours women spent doing housework in the 1960s and 2010 and found women spent fewer hours today.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health compared the national time-use data from women ages 19-64 kept by stay-at-home women from 1965 until today.

The study, funded by Coca Cola and published in PLoS One, found in 1965, women spent 25.7 hours a week pushing vacuums, food preparation, dusting, mopping, cooking, washing dishes and doing laundry, and in 2010 they spent 13.3 hours a week on these household chores. Today's women were 22 pounds heavier than their 1965 counterparts.

The time women spent using screen-based media increased from 8.3 hours per week in 1965 to 16.5 hours per week in 2010.

The results suggest the decrease in household management energy expenditure might have contributed to the increasing prevalence of obesity in women during the last five decades, the researchers said.