lifestyle

• Risk factor


  Anything that increases the chance that a person will develop a certain disease during a lifetime
• Risk factors don't guarantee that the person will catch the disease, they just increase the chance of it happening
• Types of risk factors

  • Aspects of a person's lifestyle
  • Substances in the person's body
  • Substances in the person's environment
• Risk factors for non-communicable diseases

  • Obesity
  • Poor diet
  • Lack of exercise
  • Exposure to air pollution
  • Smoking
• Risk factors for cardiovascular disease

  • Diet
  • Obesity
  • Smoking
  • Lack of exercise
• Smoking


  Directly causes cardiovascular disease, lung disease, and lung cancer
• Drinking too much alcohol


  Can cause liver disease
• Smoking or drinking while pregnant


  Includes a whole range of health problems for the unborn baby
• Obesity


  Can directly cause type-2 diabetes and cancer
• Exposure to substances like asbestos or radiation


  Can directly cause cancer
• Diseases don't just affect the individual who has the disease, they also impact their family, friends, and sometimes their entire country
• Certain groups of people are more likely to have certain risk factors than others, and so those groups have a higher incidence of the associated diseases
• In the UK, people from more deprived areas are more likely to smoke, have a poor diet, and not exercise enough, so we see more cases of cardiovascular disease and obesity in those deprived areas
• Many risk factors are out of our control, but lots of them are, and the choices that we make have a big impact on how healthy we end up being