New Health Report Points to Alarming High Numbers of Risk Factors among Australians
A big number of Australians currently live with health risk factors, diabetes and heart ailments among them, no thanks to lower socio-economic status and wayward lifestyles, a new report said.
According to the new Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW) risk factor findings, 52 percent of Australians carry with them two to three risk factors while nine out of 10 has been enduring at least one risk factor.
The AIHW listed eight major risk factors in its report, set to be released on Thursday, namely: obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, daily smoking, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, milk consumption and insufficient vegetable and fruit intake.
Sadly, the report said, Australians could easily ward off the threats of serious and deadly health conditions had they were pliable into adopting healthy habits such as observing sufficient exercise routines and taking in healthier foods.
"Just over 90 per cent (of adults) fail to consume the recommended amounts of vegetables each day and about 50 per cent do not consume the recommended amounts of fruit," the AIHW report said.
"This is important because we know that people with low fruit and vegetable intake have higher risks of chronic diseases such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes," AIHW spokeswoman Ann Hunt was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.
At the same time, more than 80 percent of Australians have admitted that they remain seated fro an average of three hours each day during their free times while another 60 percent said they do not engage in physical activities that could help them fight off the onset of various ailments, the report said.
Consequently, up to 60 percent of Australians were now considered as suffering from obesity, which exposes them to a host of health complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes and other internal organ complications, AIHW said.
Less physical activities among adult Australians now appear as major contributor to the rising cases of chronic health conditions in the country, the report said.
"A sedentary lifestyle is increasingly recognised as being detrimental to health as it can contribute to many chronic diseases as well as an increased risk of mortality," Hunt said.
While the distribution of risk factors was virtually identical for both genders, it appears that more males, up to 17 percent, carry risk factors beyond five, which were found to 11 percent of females.
Aussies within these brackets are more likely to suffer from depression, especially among men, and stroke, which the report said seems prevalent in this case on women.
Also, income capability seems a major influence on how people care for their bodies as the AIHW study showed that the economically disadvantaged "were more likely to take part in risky health behaviours and this is also true for combinations of risk factor behaviours."
In fact, high consumption of alcohol and cigarette smoking were reported among those who were idle, physically and economically, according to the AIHW report.