'Healthy' here meant never having smoked.ĥ. Smoking, well, there is no healthy amount of smoking. Healthy body weight, defined as a normal body mass index (BMI), which is between 18.5 and 24.9.Ĥ. Healthy physical activity level, which was measured as at least 30 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous activity daily.ģ. Healthy diet, which was calculated and rated based on the reported intake of healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids, and unhealthy foods like red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat, and sodium.Ģ. Here is how these healthy habits were defined and measured:ġ. These five areas were chosen because prior studies have shown them to have a large impact on risk of premature death. The researchers looked at NHS and HPFS data on diet, physical activity, body weight, smoking, and alcohol consumption that had been collected from regularly administered, validated questionnaires. This is over 120,000 participants, 34 years of data for women, and 28 years of data for men. The HPFS included over 40,000 men and followed them from 1986 to 2014. The NHS included over 78,000 women and followed them from 1980 to 2014. This means that they had data on a huge number of people over a very long period of time.

Chan School of Public Health conducted a massive study of the impact of health habits on life expectancy, using data from the well-known Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). Maybe those of us in healthcare have been looking at it all wrong, for too long.

How is it that the United States spends the most money on healthcare, and yet still has the one of the lowest life expectancies of all developed nations? (To be specific: $9,400 per capita, 79 years, and 31st.)

We live healthier glenda grattin