There are four basic health characteristics for adults in the United States – exercise, diet, smoking versus non-smoking, and body fat percentages. Good marks in all four areas reflects a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and more.
Unfortunately for those who were surveyed, less than 3% of people were up to standard in all four areas. At least, that’s what a report from Oregon State University discovered.
Details of the Study
To compile the report, researchers studied 4,745 people from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They gauged the movement of the participants with an accelerometer, with a target goal of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity each week. The researchers used blood samples to confirm whether a person was a smoker or non-smoker, and they measured body fat with X-rays. Dietary expectations were straightforward – participants were evaluated on whether they were within the top 40% of people who consumed foods, as recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Once this data was compiled, it was compared and correlated to blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose level, and other markers of cardiovascular health.
The Results
Most participants surveyed met at least one of the four goals – no smoking, or regular activity. But researchers were surprised at how few met all four of the criteria.
“The behavior standards we were measuring for were pretty reasonable,” Ellen Smit, senior author on the study and an associate professor in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences, said in a statement. “We weren’t looking for marathon runners. This is pretty low, to have so few people maintaining what we would consider a healthy lifestyle. This is sort of mind boggling.”
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Excelling in all four areas, however, wasn’t a prerequisite for great health. Many of the participants who met two or three of the goals tended to have better cardiovascular risk biomarkers – like lower cholesterol or homocysteine levels – than those who met one or zero of the criteria.
“I would expect that the more healthy lifestyles you have, the better your cardiovascular biomarkers will look,” Smit said.
Other Findings
There were several other takeaways from the research:
- Normal body fat percentage had the strongest correlation with healthy levels of HDL and total cholesterol.
- More than 70% of those surveyed did not smoke.
- A little less than half of them, 46%, were sufficiently active.
- Just over a third, 38%, ate a healthy diet as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture.
- Only 10% registered a normal body fat percentage.
- Of all the people surveyed, 2.7% met all four healthy lifestyle characteristics.
- 16% of participants met at least three of the characteristics.
- 37% satisfied at least two of the characteristics.
- 34% of people met one characteristic.
- A total of 11% of the people surveyed met none of the characteristics.
- Women were more likely to not smoke and eat healthy, but less likely to be active.
- Adults 60 years and older met fewer characteristics than adults aged 20-39, but they were less likely to smoke and more likely to eat healthy.
With the information at hand about how these four characteristics translate to health benefits, researchers are looking for ways to raise awareness and improve the percentage of healthy lifestyles in the United States.
