Often, games are dismissed as a youthful pastime. However, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the average US gamer doesn't even fall into the 18-34-year-old demographic advertisers and MTV programmers so highly prize. According to the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and provided to MSNBC, the average American gamer is 35, the age when the ostensibly retirement-age organization AARP starts sending out invitation letters.

According to the CDC, South Park wasn't too far off...

It gets worse. The study, which was conducted in conjunction with Emory University and Andrews University, also found the majority of gamers had "a greater number of poor mental health days" compared to non-gamers. They also were more often overweight and anti-social than teetotalers of computer entertainment, according to researchers.

"Video game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns," the study authors wrote. Female gamers were particularly likely to be hit by depression and "lower health status."

The CDC study surveyed 552 people--4,448 less than a controversial Game Informer survey on console reliability--aged 19-90 in the environs of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. The location, near the corporate headquarters of Microsoft and Nintendo of America, was picked because it boasted some of the highest per-capita Internet usage in the country. Conducted in 2006, the CDC study findings weren't analyzed until 2008, and apparently not published until this year.