Health risk behaviours in 40 to 60 year olds in 2014
Published 27 December 2016
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1. Health risk behaviours in 40 to 60 year olds in 2014
The tables below present data on lifestyle behaviours of people aged between 40 and 60 in England in 2014. The analyses were undertaken to support Public Health England’s One You campaign.
All data is taken from the Health Survey for England (HSE) [footnote 1], an annual survey designed to measure health and health related behaviors in adults and children living in private households in England. The data were accessed via the UK Data Archive [footnote 2] and analyses have been weighted to be representative of the population in England.
Three risk factors were considered for this analysis:
- drinking over CMO guidelines (more than 14 units of alcohol a week)
- being inactive (doing less than 30 minutes moderate exercise each week)
- being overweight or obese (having a BMI over 25)
The table below shows the percentage of men and women in the 40 to 60 age group who fell into each of these groups when the risks were considered individually.
| risk factor | men | women | all |
|---|---|---|---|
| drinking over CMO guidelines | 33.6% | 18.4% | 25.9% |
| inactive | 22.7% | 32.3% | 27.6% |
| overweight or obese | 75.9% | 63.3% | 69.5% |
The Health Survey for England enables combinations of behaviours to be analysed. The table below shows the percentage of people aged 40 to 60 who had none, one, two or all three of the relevant risks. 83% of 40 to 60 year olds displayed at least one risk factor.
| number of risks | men | women | all |
|---|---|---|---|
| zero | 12.6% | 21.0% | 16.8% |
| one risk | 47.9% | 46.2% | 47.0% |
| two risks | 35.0% | 29.2% | 32.1% |
| three risks | 4.5% | 3.6% | 4.1% |
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NatCen Social Research, University College London. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. (2016). Health Survey for England, 2014. [data collection]. 2nd Edition. UK Data Service. SN: 7919, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7919-2 ↩