August 7, 2023
3 minutes of reading
Key takeaways:
- Trends in dietary quality, physical activity and smoking habits improved between 1999 and March 2020, but weight and alcohol consumption did not.
- An expert encouraged doctors to give patients advice on a healthy lifestyle.
From 1999 to March 2020, adults in the United States saw improvements in several lifestyle factors but declines in others, highlighting the need for efforts to improve their lifestyles with an emphasis on on fairness, according to the researchers.
Zhilei Shan, MD, PhD, a professor of nutrition at Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and colleagues conducted a serial cross-sectional study using data from 10 rounds of National Health and Nutrition Survey (nine rounds of 2 years from 1999 to 2016 and a combined cycle). from 2017 to March 2020) in adults aged at least 20 years. They recently published their findings in JAMA Open Network.
Healio spoke with Shan to learn about the most important lifestyle trends among American adults, health disparities, what primary care physicians should know and much more.
Healio: Why did you decide to research this topic?
Shan: Lifestyle is a popular topic in recent years because it is changeable and associated with various non-communicable diseases and mortality. However, lifestyle trends among U.S. adults have not been described since 2010. Updated trends in lifestyle factors could provide important data for relevant stakeholders to understand population health status and to policy makers to facilitate the development of policies aimed at improving the health of the population.
Healio: Can you briefly describe your findings and their significance?
Shan: From 1999 to March 2020, U.S. adults experienced improvements in their smoking habits, diet quality, and physical activity levels, but with a decline in healthy weight and no significant change in their alcohol consumption. moderate or less. A slight improvement in overall lifestyle was also observed, but with worsening disparities by age group and persistent disparities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic level. These findings suggest that efforts are still needed to improve the lifestyles of American adults, with particular attention to equity.
Healio: Are there any trends that you consider to be the strongest or most notable?
Shan: The strongest trends were improving smoking habits and decreasing healthy weight. Perhaps the most notable trend is the slight improvement in healthy living among adults aged 65 and over.
Healio: What health equity disparities have you observed? Why is it important to note them?
Shan: Between the cycles of 1999 to 2000 and 2017 to March 2020, a greater change in healthy living was observed among younger adults than among older adults. The lack of improvement in the overall lifestyle of older adults is concerning because older adults are the fastest growing group in the U.S. population.
Disparities by race and ethnicity, education level, and income level were persistent over time, with consistently lower prevalence among non-Hispanic black adults and adults with lower income and income levels. ‘education. Previous studies have indicated that disparities in life expectancy based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are prevalent among U.S. adults. Robust disparity in healthy living by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic levels may partially explain health inequities.
Healio: What should PCP what to learn from your studies?
Shan: Since doctors play an important role in the health of their patients, patients may need proper suggestions from doctors to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Suggestions for maintaining a healthy body weight can be extremely important given the unfavorable body weight trend nationally. Additionally, greater attention is needed for population groups with little improvement in overall lifestyle (adults ages 65 and older) and low prevalence of a healthy lifestyle (non-Hispanic black adults and adults with low income and education levels).
Healio: What should be done to improve American adults’ adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors?
Shan: Practicing physicians could offer their patients suggestions for adopting a healthy lifestyle. Besides the health system, communities and non-health organizations are important in launching campaigns to promote the lifestyle. Comprehensive lifestyle promotion policies are also necessary to improve the health status of the population.
