Behavioural Risk Factors
While there may be some debate about what the most critical risk factors my research identified 10 behavioural and 10 biomedical risk factors. As indicated previously our daily behaviour determines how exposed we will be to behavioural risk factors, which in turn can determine our exposure to biomedical risk factors. While this may seem obvious to some, others might find it more difficult to comprehend. If it was easy to understand why is such a high proportion of our population inactive and consuming unhealthy diets with the downstream biomedical problem are either overweight or obese.
10 Most Identified Behavioural Risk Factors
The most identified behavioural risk factor began with a lack of exercise. It is interesting that almost all health professionals identified this as a critical problem in our society. The second most occurring risk factor was unhealthy diets. The third behavioural risk factor was sleep deficit, which research shows reduces the ability of a person to function. These risk factors were followed by heavy drinking and smoking. It is interesting, if not alarming, that vaping is being promoted to the extent that it is as a substitute for smoking even though the health consequences are similar. The bar chart of responses is as follows
Behavioural Risk Factors
Source: Interview Responses with Health Professionals
Australians become less active as they age, with a high proportion of persons between the ages of 55 and 64 being inactive.
As we saw previously, when our bodies become inactive we leave the door open to all types of diseases and cancers that thrive on a body that is in decline.
Although this graph refers to old ABS data, the situation has got worse rather than better in recent census statistics. See below.
Proportion of Physically Inactive Persons (Aged 55+ Years)
Physically Inactive Persons (55+yrs)
Source: ABS, 2016