Is Lifestyle Going from Bad to Worse? Yes!
Sun, June 7, 2009 at 02:00AM You’d think that, given all the healthful advice broadcast on the radio, TV, Internet, and in magazines, we’d have improved our healthy lifestyles a lot over recent years. Not so, apparently. A study reported in the American Journal of Medicine traced the changes in 5 healthy lifestyle habits in the last 18 years.
Data for analysis were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES I from 1988 to 1994, and NHANES II from 2001 to 2006). Five healthy lifestyles were selected:
Body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 29.9
Moderate alcohol intake – up to 1 drink a day for women, 2 a day for men
Eating 5 or more fruits and veggies a day
Not smoking
Physical activity 12 times a month or more
The participants in the study were aged 40 to 74. Over the 18-year interval, those with a BMI below 30 decreased from 72% to 64%; those doing enough physical activity decreased from 53% to 43%; and eating 5-or-more a day decreased from 42% to 26%. Smoking frequency was unchanged (27%, 26%). Moderate alcohol use increased from 40% to 51%. Adherence to all 5 healthy habits decreased from 15% to 8%.
Disappointing findings, indeed. Clearly, only a small proportion of the middle-aged follow a healthy lifestyle pattern – fewer today than 18 years ago. Also disappointing was the fact that participants diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol were no more likely to adhere to a healthy lifestyle pattern than those without these conditions, although they must have been made more aware of the risks they were running.
There’s still time to do something about it, if you’re one of those who lapsed, or (never started). A report from 2007 also published in the American Journal of Medicine describes a study of people aged 45 to 64 who switched to an overall healthy lifestyle. Over 4 years, they had a 40% reduction in death from any cause and a 35% reduction in cardiovascular events, a worthwhile result. So get going, if you need to make changes!
Reader Comments