A report in the June 2009 of the American Journal of Medicine confirms what nurses know: Americans are not making healthy lifestyle choices. Dr. Dane E. King and colleagues, in the department of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, collected lifestyle data from over 15,000 people aged 40-74 through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey was previously conducted in 1994 and 2006, including 7,340 and 7,811 people who participated in the current study, respectively. Results show that the percent of obese people increased from 28 to 36, and those who exercised 12 times or more each month dropped from 53 to 43 percent. The number of people eating the recommended 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily decreased dramatically from 42 to 26 percent. Smoking rates remained fairly consistent, changing from 26.9 to 26.1 percent. 51 percent of the participants reported drinking moderately as opposed to 40 percent in 1988.
Overall the number of people practicing the 5 healthy habits examined dropped from 15 percent in 1988 to 8 percent in 2006. King notes that "The results are about a C minus." King believes some of our unhealthy choices result from our tendency to focus on medication to lower blood pressure and cholesterol or to prevent diabetes and heart disease. People in the U.S. choose to take medications as opposed to making healthy lifestyle changes involving diet and exercise. King continues, "The fact is that no pills are as potent and as powerful as a healthy lifestyle."
Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, views the current results as disheartening if not depressing. "In every way conceivable, from cost to convenience, the modern food supply favors the consumption of highly processed, low-nutrient, high-calorie food. Every aspect of modern life, from hectic schedules to constant stress, to the reliance on labor-saving technology, fosters sedentariness" Katz emphasizes. Katz concludes that "Eating well, being active, and in generally taking good care of oneself and one's family must lie along paths of lesser resistance" for persons in our country to make healthy lifestyle changes.
Nursing researchers and nurse educators can assist people to identify and follow these paths of lesser resistance. We need to continue to teach effective and culturally appropriate strategies to assist with lifestyle choices and changes. Additionally, as a trusted profession in our country, we can role-model these healthy lifestyle choices.
Source: Reinberg S. Americans score low on healthy Lifestyle. Health Day. May 27, 2009. Available athttp://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090528/hl_hsn/americansscorelowonhealthylifestyle. Accessed May 28, 2009.