Unfortunately, improvements in longevity have not been matched by improvements in health. Healthy life expectancy is described as years lived without activity restriction resulting from a long-lasting physical or mental health condition. It’s based on a self-rated assessment of how health conditions and illnesses reduce an individual's ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
On average, 22 years of a woman’s life and 16 years of a man’s are marred by ill health. Some people live long healthy lives while others develop long-term conditions that impair their later years. Our challenge as health professionals is to improve healthspan – the period of life lived without ill health.
It helps if you have “good genes” but biology is not destiny. Genes influence only about 35% of health outcomes and the rest are due to healthy habits, referred to in scientific literature as ‘modifiable lifestyle factors’. You’ll know these to include physical activity, abstaining from smoking, moderating alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy body weight and eating a healthy diet, all of which affect the incidence of chronic diseases, overall health and total life expectancy. Smoking, inactivity, poor diet and heavy alcohol consumption contribute to up to 60% of premature deaths and 7.4-17.9 years’ loss in life expectancy.
Combining several healthy habits has an even greater effect on healthspan. It’s becoming clear that genes and healthy habits are not isolated – instead, they interact in a dynamic way. In diseases such as cardiomyopathy, heart failure and hypertension, healthy habits and medication interact to influence the development and course of the disease. And a major US study that examined health outcomes from nurses from 1976-2014 found that adopting healthy habits resulted in up to 10 extra years of disease-free life.
But the UK does not have a healthy population: most adults are overweight or obese and do not take sufficient exercise. The situation has worsened over the past 50 years. In the 1970s, only 5% of the adult population was overweight or obese. The prevalence of type two diabetes has more than quadrupled in the past 25 years. People who are most socially deprived are less likely to adopt healthy habits and more likely to suffer ill health and die at younger age than more privileged citizens. The NHS is struggling to cope with ill health, yet only 5% of health spending is on prevention of ill health.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
The ability to live a long and healthy life should not be confined to those who are more affluent and better educated. We need to do so much more to promote health and well-being.
Improving health must have national, local and personal dimensions. On a national level, public policy can promote a healthy diet and lifestyle. The policy of banning smoking in public places is an excellent example of how public policy can contribute to improving health.
At a local level, councils should promote health by investing in infrastructure to enable people to remain active. Sadly, many councils are failing in their duty to promote health and closing leisure centres and playgrounds. National policy should prohibit such actions.
And finally, on an individual level, we can all take action to adopt healthy habits and maintain good health. As nurses, we can practice what we preach and become role models for colleagues and patients.
On average, 22 years of a woman’s life and 16 years of a man’s are marred by ill health. Some people live long healthy lives while others develop long-term conditions that impair their later years. Our challenge as health professionals is to improve healthspan – the period of life lived without ill health.
It helps if you have “good genes” but biology is not destiny. Genes influence only about 35% of health outcomes and the rest are due to healthy habits, referred to in scientific literature as ‘modifiable lifestyle factors’. You’ll know these to include physical activity, abstaining from smoking, moderating alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy body weight and eating a healthy diet, all of which affect the incidence of chronic diseases, overall health and total life expectancy. Smoking, inactivity, poor diet and heavy alcohol consumption contribute to up to 60% of premature deaths and 7.4-17.9 years’ loss in life expectancy.
Combining several healthy habits has an even greater effect on healthspan. It’s becoming clear that genes and healthy habits are not isolated – instead, they interact in a dynamic way. In diseases such as cardiomyopathy, heart failure and hypertension, healthy habits and medication interact to influence the development and course of the disease. And a major US study that examined health outcomes from nurses from 1976-2014 found that adopting healthy habits resulted in up to 10 extra years of disease-free life.
But the UK does not have a healthy population: most adults are overweight or obese and do not take sufficient exercise. The situation has worsened over the past 50 years. In the 1970s, only 5% of the adult population was overweight or obese. The prevalence of type two diabetes has more than quadrupled in the past 25 years. People who are most socially deprived are less likely to adopt healthy habits and more likely to suffer ill health and die at younger age than more privileged citizens. The NHS is struggling to cope with ill health, yet only 5% of health spending is on prevention of ill health.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
The ability to live a long and healthy life should not be confined to those who are more affluent and better educated. We need to do so much more to promote health and well-being.
Improving health must have national, local and personal dimensions. On a national level, public policy can promote a healthy diet and lifestyle. The policy of banning smoking in public places is an excellent example of how public policy can contribute to improving health.
At a local level, councils should promote health by investing in infrastructure to enable people to remain active. Sadly, many councils are failing in their duty to promote health and closing leisure centres and playgrounds. National policy should prohibit such actions.
And finally, on an individual level, we can all take action to adopt healthy habits and maintain good health. As nurses, we can practice what we preach and become role models for colleagues and patients.
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