The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Research released earlier this year sheds light on just how important five behaviours are to our health. Research from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Public Health Ontario (PHO), the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) showed 60 per cent of deaths in Ontario are attributed to smoking, alcohol, poor diet, lack of physical activity and stress. It suggests that unhealthy habits are costing Ontarians 7.5 years of life, but that they could become the healthiest people in Canada by reducing those five unhealthy behaviours. 'Individually, if we all make one change like smoking less or being more physically active, then collectively we would be significantly healthier and live much longer,' says Doug Manuel, lead author and Senior Scientist at ICES and Senior Scientist at OHRI. Overall, Ontarians would gain 7.5 years of life expectancy if everyone were in the healthiest category for all five behavioural risks examined. Smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet each contribute 2 to 2.5 years of lost life expectancy. If everyone modified only their most important health risk, overall life expectancy would increase by up to 3.7 years. 'The evidence shows that these five risk factors steal both years from our lives and quality from our lives', says Dr. Vivek Goel, President and CEO of PHO. 'If we want sustained improvements in health, we need to focus our collective efforts on reducing these risk factors, both individually and at a population health level.' Individuals can calculate their own life expectancy with a new Life Expectancy Calculator (http://www.rrasp-phirn.ca/risktools) based on smoking, alcohol, food, exercise and stress level. This tool is also accessible from the ICES and PHO websites. The study found: Ê60 per cent of all deaths in Ontario are attributable to five risks Almost all Ontarians have at least one of the five risks Increasing physical activity and improving diet are the most common changes that Ontarians could make to improve their health Improving healthy behavior will not only improve length of life, but also the amount of healthy life 'The impact that modifiable behaviours have on our health is astounding. Not only will we increase our life expectancy but being healthier will mean there will be fewer demands on both formal care giving like hospitals and informal care like family,' says Manuel. _ Compiled from an Ottawa Hospital Research Institute news release
