The actual term "couch potato" was first coined in 1976 by Tom Iacino, a friend of American underground comics artist Robert Armstrong.
[1][2] The term eventually entered common American vocabulary, generally defining one who unceasingly watches television.
[citation needed] Some studies have said that the "couch potato lifestyle" is a serious health hazard to its practitioners;[3] in the United Kingdom, a plan of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit tried attempts "to combat the couch potato culture" to "[improving the U.K.'s] international sporting performance.
"[4] Studies presented at the 2003 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine suggested that there could be a genetic basis for the "couch potato lifestyle".
[5] Research suggests that being a couch potato could make a person a decade older biologically than someone who is physically active.