New paper in Nature Medicine suggests further need to address environmental factors such as smoking, physical activity and living conditions
The combined effect of many different factors in our lifestyles and environment can have a significant impact on our health and longevity, according to a new study published in the medical journal Nature Medicine. Crucially, these factors are demonstrated to have more of an impact than our genes. And that means we can make interventions to live healthier, longer lives.
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A team of researchers from the University of Oxford conducted the systematic analysis of 492,567 records in the UK Biobank to identify the factors in premature death and major age-related diseases. They aimed to assess the influence of 164 different environmental factors and genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases on ageing, age-related diseases and premature death – defined as being under the age of 75.
They found that in 17% of cases, environmental factors explained a variation in the risk of death, compared to just 2% variation due to genetic disposition. Of those environmental factors, the greatest impact on ageing and premature death were due to smoking and socioeconomic factors such as household income, home ownership and employment. Lack of physical activity and poor living conditions were also key.
In fact, smoking was associated with 21 of the diseases identified in the study, socioeconomic factor with 19 and lack of physical activity with 17. Early exposure to these elements – such as a person’s body weight at age 10, or whether their mother smoked around them soon after birth – was also shown to have significant impact on a person’s ageing and risk of premature death many decades later.
What’s more, the study found that environmental exposures had a greater effect on diseases of the heart, lung and liver than genetic predisposition. Yet genes remained a dominant factor in such conditions such as dementias and breast cancer.
- Read the full paper, ‘Integrating the environmental and genetic architectures of aging and mortality’ in Nature Medicine
The findings suggest that early, proactive improvements to lifestyle and environmental conditions could have a sizeable impact on improved health and longevity.
Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation says of the study: ‘Your income, postcode and background shouldn’t determine your chances of living a long and healthy life. But this pioneering study reinforces that this is the reality for far too many people.
‘We have long known that risk factors such as smoking impact our heart and circulatory health, but this new research emphasises just how great the opportunity is to influence our chances of developing health problems, including cardiovascular disease, and dying prematurely. We urgently need bold action from government to target the surmountable barriers to good health that too many people in the UK are facing.’
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