A Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy CHAT / Section One: Introduction
What are the most common lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease in Australia? REF
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Smoking
Kills almost 19,000 Australians a year and is responsible for 9% of the total burden of disease.
Nutrition
Only 5% of Australians eat the recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. Two thirds of Australian adults are overweight or obese.
Alcohol
One in five men and one in eleven women consume alcohol at levels that are harmful to their health.
Physical Activity
Just 15% of adults aged 18-64 years and 26% aged 65+ years meet physical activity guidelines.
All of these risk factors are modifiable – they can be reduced through lifestyle change and this is shown to improve health outcomes for people.
But it can be challenging for people to make those lifestyle changes. Often people aren’t even aware of the link between health behaviours and disease. For example in 2015, less than half of Australians knew that diet, activity or smoking were risk factors for heart disease. REF
Challenges to making lifestyle changes are well-recognised as seen in the diagram at right: REF
Hover over each category to get a list of challenges.
High prevalence and acceptability of risk factors in the community
Lack of professional support or access to resources