There’s a lot of interest in new ways to boost health, but when it
comes down to it, there are really only a few habits that are tried and
true–and together can cut disease risk dramatically. These are not
smoking, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, drinking
in moderation and sleeping adequately, which is a relatively new
recommendation.
A new
study
from the CDC finds that only a small percentage–just about 6%–of people
in the U.S. are engaging in all five healthy behaviors. Given these
strangely low numbers, the question may not be so much
what makes people healthy, but rather
how
to get people to actually go about it. And as anyone who’s struggled
with behavior changes knows, it’s often much easier said than done.
Here’s
the gist of the study: The CDC researchers looked at data from 400,000
people over the age of 21 in all 50 states. The five major health
behaviors considered were defined as: not currently smoking; getting
regular physical activity; not drinking alcohol, or only drinking in
moderation (two drinks per day for men and up to one drink per day for
women); maintaining a normal body weight; and getting enough sleep at
night (defined as seven or more hours). The results show the percentages
of people who engaged in none to all of the behaviors:
- 6.3% of the respondents engaged in all five healthy behaviors
- 24.3% engaged in four of the behaviors
- 35.4% engaged in three of the behaviors
- 24.3% engaged in two of the behaviors
- 8.4% engaged in one of the behaviors
- 1.4% engaged in none of the behaviors
In
general, women, older adults, college graduates and Asian-Americans
were most likely to engage in the five healthy habits. And not
surprisingly, people on the west coast and in the Rocky Mountain states
were more likely to engage in four or five habits, while those in the
South and the states along the Ohio River were least likely to engage in
them.
“A particularly intriguing finding from the study was the
geographic differences in the engagement in four or more of the
behaviors,” says Wayne Giles, senior author on the study. “The study
found that persons in the Pacific and Rocky Mountain states were
substantially more likely to engage in these behaviors than persons in
the Southern states and Ohio region. Thus, where people live is an
important determinant of whether they engage in these behaviors. We need
to provide people with choices so that those who want to engage in
these five healthy behaviors have the resources and support to do so.”
Given
all we know about the habits that contribute to health these days, it
seems strange that relatively so few people are engaging in all five of
the big ones, particularly in certain regions. It would seem by now that
most people know what to do and not to do–maybe that’s not the case
overall. Or maybe making fundamental lifestyle changes just isn’t easy
enough to do on one’s own, and larger, more collective efforts are
required.
The authors point out some strategies that might
actually help people change their behaviors, and they’re mainly
larger-scale shifts in thinking. For instance, helping people get more
sleep is not only a matter of ads on buses, but it’s also a matter of
integrating the research into practice in a larger way. For instance,
promoting seven hours of sleep as a basic tenet of health might start
with beginning school later in the morning for teens, and shifting
workday hours for employees. For promoting exercise, it might be making
outdoor spaces more activity-friendly and increasing the time devoted to
physical activity in schools, rather than cutting it back, as is being
done in many areas these days. Changing the makeup of school lunches and
teaching kids what good nutrition really means would go a long way, not
for kids themselves, but maybe even their families, too.
There
are definitely more free and low-cost resources out there than there
once were to help us make changes, but we still have a long way to go.
It’s easy to talk about getting healthier, but harder to do it all by
ourselves. So maybe innovative, outside-the-box strategies on a
larger scale would go further in helping us make the changes we need to
make–and not just for us, but for the aim of passing better habits on to
our kids as well.
