An index score incorporating lifestyle risk factors such as sedentary behavior, smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, and too little or too much sleep shows a strong relationship with all-cause mortality.
Researchers linked mortality records with the results of lifestyle questionnaires from a 6-year Australian cohort study in 231,048 individuals aged over 45 years, and used this data to develop a lifestyle risk index score based on six health behaviors, with a minimum score of zero and maximum of six, according to Dr. Ding Ding of Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health and the Charles Perkins Centre, both at the University of Sydney in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia, and associates.
Compared with individuals with a score of zero, representing no lifestyle risk factors, the all-cause mortality hazard ratios for scores of one, two, three, four, five, and six were 1.27, 1.73, 2.45, 3.06, 4.61, and 5.38, respectively, even after adjusting for factors such as body mass index, cardiovascular or metabolic disease, and total number of chronic diseases.
The relationship between the lifestyle risk index score and mortality was even more significant among women, individuals with lower educational attainment, normal weight/underweight, or without a cancer diagnosis in the previous 10 years, according to a paper published online December 8 in PLoS Medicine.
Of the six risk behaviors, smoking and physical inactivity showed the strongest association with mortality, followed by prolonged sitting, excess or not enough sleep and poor diet, although there was no significant association between high alcohol intake and mortality (PLoS Med. 2015 Dec 8. [doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001917]).
“This reinforces an important message for public health and clinical practice that adherence to low-risk lifestyles is likely to be protective for all,” the investigators wrote.
The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. No conflicts of interest were declared.