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EPIC-Potsdam study: Healthy lifestyle greatly predicted prevention of chronic disease
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The risk for developing diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke or cancer was lower among EPIC-Potsdam study participants who adhered to four healthy lifestyle factors: never smoking, maintaining a healthy weight (BMI <30), exercising regularly and following a healthy diet.
Researchers assessed data from 23,153 German study participants to determine the effects of adhering to four healthy lifestyle factors on reducing the four leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Mean age of participants was 49.3 years.
At the beginning of the EPIC-Potsdam study (between 1994 and 1998), participants completed an assessment of their body weight and height, a personal interview about diseases and questionnaires on sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics and food frequency.
At baseline, most participants had between one and three healthy factors; about 4% had zero and 9% had all four.
During 7.8 years of follow-up, 2,006 participants developed new cases of diabetes (3.7%), MI (0.9%), stroke (0.8%) or cancer (3.8%).
After adjustment for variables including age, sex and educational status, an increasing number of healthy lifestyle factors were associated with decreasing risk for developing a chronic disease. Risk was reduced by 78% (95% CI, 72-83) in participants with all four healthy factors at baseline compared with participants with none of the healthy factors.
Further, the four factors were associated with a 93% reduced risk for diabetes (95% CI, 88-95), 81% reduced risk for MI (95% CI, 47-93), 50% reduced risk for stroke (95% CI, –18 to 79) and 36% reduced risk for cancer (95% CI, 5-57).
The largest reduction in risk was associated with a BMI <30, followed by never smoking, at least 3.5 hours of physical activity and then adhering to good dietary principles.
These results confirm public health recommendations, according to the researchers.
“Because the roots of these factors often originate during the formative stages of life, it is especially important to start early in teaching the important lessons concerning healthy living,” they wrote.
Ford ES. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169:1355-1362.