Study: Combined healthy behaviours can add 14 years to life

Daily exercise, moderate alcohol consumption and sufficient fruit and vegetable intake are known to be good for health, but researchers have now discovered that their combined effect can actually add up to 14 years to life expectancy compared to those who fail to adopt these behaviours.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council (UK) studied lifestyle-related health determinants in order to quantify the potential combined health impact of certain behaviours. Studies had so far focused on their individual impact on mortality.

The results, published in open-access international medical journal PLoS Medicine in January 2008, state that “though relatively modest and achievable, their combined impact was associated with an estimated four-fold difference in mortality risk, equivalent to 14 years in chronological age.” 

In order to examine the combined impact of changes in lifestyle, researchers evaluated more than 20,000 men and women aged 45–79 according to four behaviours: non-smoking, physically active, moderate daily alcohol intake and intake of at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. The participants were followed for 11 years and deaths among them were recorded. 

The researchers conclude that “risk of total mortality significantly increased with a decreasing number of health behaviours”. Those who had all four healthy behaviours had only a quarter of the mortality risk of those who had adopted none of the healthy behaviours. “Although the trends were strongest for deaths from cardiovascular causes, they were also apparent for deaths from cancer and from other causes,” added the researchers. 

“These striking findings are of relevance not only to health researchers and public policy makers but for the entire population,” write the PLoS Medicine editors, urging for wide societal dissemination of these results. 

Another study, the results of which were published the following day in the European Heart Journal, followed some 12,000 Danish men and women aged 20 or older for 20 years. It looked at the combined influence of physical activity and weekly alcohol intake on the risk of specific heart disease and deaths from all causes.

The results show that both moderate to high levels of physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake have a positive impact on health. “The lowest risk of death from all causes was observed among the physically active moderate drinkers and the highest risk among the physically inactive non- and heavy drinkers,” said the lead author of the study, Jane Østergaard Pedersen. “Neither physical activity alone nor alcohol intake can completely reverse the increased risk associated with alcohol abstention and lack of physical activity,”she added. 

Since 2003, the EU’s Public Health Action Programme (2003-2008) has been tackling lifestyle-related determinants of health and encouraging member states to promote healthy lifestyles to their citizens. This lifestyle-based approach to public health is first of its kind in EU health policy and recognises that effective prevention presents a solution to the economic problems of EU health systems.

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