More than 97 percent of American adults have at least one risk factor for an early death, according to new research from Canada’s York University.
In June, researchers published an analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to assess mortality risk among adults 20 years and older. Scientists analyzed the surveys between two different periods of time — 1988-1994 and 1999-2014 — to examine risk factors ranging from obesity and chronic illness to lifestyle habits such as drug use and alcohol consumption.
“Over 97% of individuals had at least one of the 19 risk factors examined with no difference in the prevalence over time,” their report concluded. “The prevalence of individuals who are free of all of the 19 examined risk factors was less than 3%, at all time points.”
The kinds of risks that were present in 1988-1994 compared to 1999-2014, however, shifted from physiological risks such as cancer and lung problems to mental risks and lifestyle issues like sedentary movement.
Health professor Jennifer Kuk, the lead author of the study, said in a university press release that “you can take this as a good news story or a bad news story, depending on how you want to look at these numbers.”
“What we discovered is that the relationship with risk factors and mortality changes over time, which could be explained by factors such as evolution in treatments and changes in social stigma,” Kuk said. “Overall, most of us have something wrong with us, and
