Medically today’s society is far better off than ever before, with outstanding scientific research being carried out daily and the development of new drugs to help treat patients. Interestingly, research has shown that many of us are neglecting our health and wellbeing, which was highlighted in a recent study conducted across 4,000 adults in the UK.
A valuable insight into the health of the nation was gained when comparing the study group to established healthy guidelines. The guidelines include the amount of sleep; portions of fruit and vegetables eaten; water consumption; cardio exercise per week; muscle workouts per week; alcohol consumed per week; cigarettes smoked per day and finally Body Mass Index (BMI). On all counts most of the study group fell short of these guidelines and there were clear differences between ‘Mr and Mrs Average’ too. According to the study, the average man drinks more water, does more cardio and strength exercises, smokes more and drinks more alcohol than the average woman. On the contrary, the average woman has more sleep, eats more portions of fruit and vegetables and has a lower BMI than the average man. Regional differences were also considered during the study and Yorkshire, the East and South West came out on top as the healthiest areas:
I always read these studies with a pinch of salt because I do find them sensationalist at times and out of context, but I did find the results of this study very interesting. I’m not sure how you can decide how healthy one person is compared to the other by looking at the quantity of fruit and vegetables they eat or their BMI, which quite frankly can be very misleading. Perhaps a bit more perspective is required as certain lifestyle factors haven’t been accounted for, such as debilitating conditions that may cause someone to do less exercise compared to the person next to them. The study is useful in highlighting certain factors concerned with health and the general population; however, I think that the definition of healthy is very subjective and cannot be generalised as one size really doesn’t fit all.
What are your thoughts on the statistics from the National Health Report? Do you read these studies with a pinch of salt?
*In collaboration with Benenden
This is quite interesting. I’m a big stats geek so love looking at information laid out like this. It doesn’t really surprise me though that neither male or female on average are living up to the health living guidelines. Quite sad and worrying at the same time though.
I love looking at information, but I also like to be skeptical- Radio 4 has a great show called More or Less where they look into stats more.
I do find the average figures shocking- people do so little activity now. But then I look at people I work with and very few of them do much exercise on a regular basis because they are so busy with work, so I can see why.
I find the smoking one weird as people generally either do or don’t, so really with that they need to discount all the people who don’t smoke, and then see an average of how many the smokers use per day.