Bad habits such as smoking, drinking heavy and lack of exercise should be addressed as soon as possible to increase the chances of happy and healthy old age.
That is the message of a new peer reviewed study, published in the Annals of Medicine (Elevate), which found smoking and other vices are associated with decreases in health in people up to 36 years.
The impact is even greater when these bad habits are allowed in the long term, long -term state experts whose study tracked the mental and physical health of hundreds of people for more than 30 years.
Previous investigations have followed people of the middle age, usually for about 20 years. Studies to date have shown that smoking and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle adapt before the age of 30. However, in this new study, a Finland research team wanted to track people of an earlier age, and unmark, at the same time, the effect of unhealthy habits on mental health.
Using a longitudinal longitudinal study, in which hundreds of children born in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä in 1959 were followed from childhood to 60 years, the team analyzed the mental and physical health of the participants through data collected from surveys and doctors when they were 27 years (326 participants) and again at 36 years and 42, 50 and 61 (206 participants).
Mental health was evaluated by surveys on symptoms of depression and psychological well -being. Physical health was evaluated by creating a metabolic risk score based on blood pressure, waist size and blood sugar levels, cholesterol and other fats in the blood.
Own health was evaluated by asking participants to qualify the status of their health during the past year.
Three risky behaviors were also evaluated at all times: smoking, drinking heavy (defined as consuming at least 7,000g/875 units of alcohol per year for women and 10,000 g/1,250 units a year for men) and physical inactivity (exercising less than once a week).
The analysis of the results showed that if an individual had the three unhealthy habits, he smoked, he drank strongly and was inactive, at a given time, his mental and physical health was poorer than if they did not have any of these risky behaviors.
Depressive symptoms increased by 0.1 points, the metabolic risk score increased by 0.53 points, psychological well -being fell by 0.1 points and self -evaluated health fell by 0.45 points. Depressive symptoms and psychological well-being measured on a 1-4 scale; Self-evaluated health was measured on a 1-5 scale; and the metabolic risk was obtained from 0 to 5.
Having the three non -healthy long -term behaviors associated even more strongly with poor health. Depressive symptoms increased by 0.38 points, the metabolic risk score increased by 1.49 points, psychological well -being fell by 0.14 points and self -evaluated health fell by 0.45 points.
The lack of exercise was particularly related to poor physical health, smoking was mainly related to poor mental health and heavy alcohol consumption was associated with decreases in mental and physical health.
Crucially, the effects were evident when the participants were about 30 years old.
“Non -communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer cause almost three quarters of deaths worldwide,” says the main author, Dr. Tiia Kekäläinen, a health scientist who has a particular interest in aging. “But by following a healthy lifestyle, an individual can reduce their risk of developing these diseases and reducing their chances of premature death.
“Our findings highlight the importance of approaching risky health behaviors, such as smoking, drinking heavy and physical inactivity, as soon as possible to avoid the damage they cause when accumulating over the years, culminating in poor mental and physical health later in later life.
“However, it is never too late to change to healthier habits. The adoption of healthier habits in medium age also has benefits for advanced age.”
The authors point out that the study was observational and, therefore, could not establish that risky behaviors were feeding poor health, instead of vice versa.
They say the relationship is probably bidirectional. For example, someone who is stressed can drink a lot to help them face. This could cause problems with family and friends who lead to poorer mental well -being.
They add that the results are likely to apply to people born in Finland and other Western countries at the end of the 1950s and in the 1960s. However, they may not be so relevant to younger generations, due to cultural and social changes, and in part different risk behaviors that occur today.
The limitations of the study include qualifying each of the three habits as equally harmful to health, instead of weighing them.
The authors also recognize that they only observed three types of behavior and say that other factors, such as diet, should be included in future studies.