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Significant Effects From Dietary and Lifestyle Risk Factors Contribute To Many Otherwise Preventable Deaths In The U.S. Annually
Smoking and High Blood Pressure
Each Account For 20% of Deaths in U.S. Adults
Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a comprehensive new study led by a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The researchers found that smoking is responsible for 467,000 premature deaths each year, high blood pressure for 395,000, and being overweight for 216,000. The effects of smoking are attributed to about one in five deaths in American adults, while high blood pressure is responsible for one in six deaths. It is the most comprehensive study yet to examine how diet, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors for chronic disease contribute to mortality in the U.S. The hundreds of thousands of premature deaths caused by these known, modifiable risk factors is deplorable and should motivate a serious look at whether the public health system has enough capacity to seriously implement effective changes and whether it is currently focusing on the proper set of interventions.
The researchers also found significant effects from other preventable dietary and lifestyle risk factors. Below are the numbers of deaths in the U.S. annually due to each of the individual risk factors examined:
Smoking: 467,000
High blood pressure: 395,000
Overweight-obesity: 216,000
Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000
High blood sugar: 190,000
High LDL cholesterol: 113,000
Excess dietary salt: 102,000
Insufficient dietary omega-3 fatty acids (seafood): 84,000
High dietary trans fatty acids: 82,000
Insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000
Insufficient dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000
Excess Alcohol use: 64,000
In regard to Alcohol, moderate use averted a balance of 26,000 deaths from heart disease, stroke and diabetes, because moderate drinking reduces risk of these diseases. However, these deaths were outweighed by 90,000 alcohol-related deaths from vehicular homicides and other injuries, violence, cancers and other diseases.
All of the deaths calculated in the study were considered premature or preventable in that the victims would not have died when they did if they had not been subject to the behaviors or activities linked to their deaths. All of these risk factors are modifiable, because people have the choice to make healthier decisions.
While earlier studies had quantified deaths linked to a few factors, like smoking and alcohol, this is the first to look at a wide range of risk factors, including those linked to diet, lifestyle and metabolic factors, for the whole U.S. population. This is also the first to use methods that allowed a true comparison of a diverse set of risks in terms of how many deaths each of the risk factors is responsible for. The researchers analyzed data from a number of public sources, including from the National Center for Health Statistics and numerous published epidemiological studies and clinical trials.
The researchers also found differences between the preventable causes of death among men and women. High blood pressure was the leading cause of death in adult women, killing nearly 230,000 American women each year, nearly 20% percent of all female deaths. By comparison, High Blood Pressure is more than five times the 42,000 number of annual deaths in women from breast cancer.
Smoking was the leading cause of death in men, killing an estimated 248,000 annually, equivalent to 21 percent of all adult male deaths.
The mortality effects of many other risk factors were about equal in men and women, with alcohol use being a major exception. Seventy percent of all deaths caused by alcohol were among men and represented 45,000 deaths, a result because men consumed more alcohol and engaged in more binge drinking according to the researchers.
The findings are an urgent reminder that although we have been partially effective in reducing smoking and high blood pressure, we have not yet completed the task and have a great deal more to do on these major preventable factors. The researchers suggest the government should also use an effective set of regulatory, pricing, and health information initiatives to substantially reduce salt and trans fats in prepared and packaged foods as well as to support research that can find effective strategies for modifying the other dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors that cause large numbers of premature deaths in the U.S. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of individuals to make the healthier choices for themselves.
This research was supported by a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the Association of Schools of Public Health.
Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Administrator's Note: This article is reprinted here with the permission of Vitamin Power.
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