What Are Your Fears, and Do You Respond Sensibly to Them?

A survey commissioned by the American Diabetes Association entitled “Is that risky?” has produced a not-so-surprising result. Over 2,500 American adults over 18 were asked about their attitudes and actions regarding risky behaviors. While attention was mainly focused on diabetes, the results covered more general health-related topics.

Over half (52%) of the participants said the worst thing that could happen to them would be developing a chronic illness. Other selections from the list were: severe financial debt (19%), getting divorced or having to live alone (13%), losing their job (11%), and other (5%). It’s surprising that ‘losing one’s job’ doesn’t figure higher in today’s circumstances; maybe one could pool this with financial debt for a 30% response.

The fear of developing a chronic illness in the top spot was inconsistent with the finding that roughly half the participants had not talked to their doctor about risk factors for such conditions as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, or Alzheimer’s. Maybe they were getting their information from the Internet – a potentially risky approach, in itself.

To make matters worse, many subjects in the survey acknowledged that they followed a poor diet (67%) or were overweight or obese (83%). Overall, 66% said avoiding doctors’ visits was risky, yet 50% admitted this behavior pattern.

It seems to me to be highly illogical behavior to know you have a distant worry (chronic illness) and yet to do little about it. There is ample evidence that a healthy lifestyle can prevent or postpone such conditions – just search this site, or any of the ones listed under Useful links. And if you want to know more about your likelihood of contracting diabetes, take the 2-minute online test from the American Diabetes Association.