People's health is getting worse every decade

Despite the increased life expectancy, according to the state of "metabolic" health, modern adults are inferior to their peers of past generations. Researchers from the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment came to this conclusion based on the results of a large-scale cohort study comparing shifts between generations, extending to a number of generally recognized metabolic risk factors for the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system.

As part of the work, the authors analyzed data on more than 6,000 participants of the Detinkham cohort study, the first stage of which was conducted in 1987-1991, after which repeated surveys of participants were conducted after 6, 11 and 16 years. The main risk factors assessed were body weight, blood pressure, as well as levels of total cholesterol (to detect hypercholesterolemia) and high-density lipoproteins in the blood, which are considered to perform a protective function.

Participants were divided into groups by gender and age (20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 years old). The purpose of repeated examinations was to clarify the differences between risk profiles characteristic of different age groups.

The results showed that all generations with age are characterized by an increase in the incidence of overweight, obesity and hypertension, however, among representatives of later generations, these risk factors were more common than among representatives of previous generations. For example, at the start of the study, 40% of men aged 30-39 years were classified as overweight. 11 years later, the incidence of overweight among men of the same age increased to 52%. Among women, such unfavorable changes appeared only at the end of the observation period. Thus, the incidence of obesity has doubled over the last 10 years of the study.

Also , within the framework of the work , the following were identified:

• unfavorable statistically significant shift in the incidence of hypertension between each two consecutive age groups, extending to representatives of both sexes (except for the last two groups of men);
• unfavorable statistically significant shift in the incidence of diabetes for three out of four age groups of men, not extending to women;
• absence of shifts in the frequency of hypercholesterolemia in the presence of a positive shift for the level of high-density lipoproteins detected for the two most senior groups.

Unfavorable trends in changing the health status of modern people are obvious. The authors note that representatives of the last of the analyzed age groups are 15 years ahead of representatives of earlier generations in terms of the incidence of obesity. This indicates the need to promote physical activity and healthy eating, especially among young people.

Moreover, the authors suggest that the identified adverse trends in the near future may neutralize the increase in life expectancy observed in recent years due to improved quality of medical care, a decrease in the prevalence of smoking among young people and other factors.

Article by Hulsegge et al. Today's adult generations are less healthy than their predecessors: Generation shifts in metabolic risk factors: the Doetinchem Cohort Study is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the European Society of Cardiology:
The adult generations of today are less healthy than their counterparts of previous generations.

15.04.2013