Students:

Lecturer:

V. Andriuseviien

Temporal and Regional Trends in the

Prevalence
of
Healthy
Lifestyle
Characteristics: United States, 1994
2007.
The article is from American Journal of
Public Health.
The author of article is Jonathan P. Troost,
BS, Ann P. Rafferty, PhD, Zhehui Luo, PhD,
and Mathew J. Reeves, PhD.

 Objectives. Authors examined temporal and

regional trends in the prevalence of health
lifestyles in the United States.
Methods. They used 1994 to 2007 data from
the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System to assess 4 healthy lifestyle
characteristics: having a healthy weight, not
smoking, consuming fruits and vegetables,
and engaging in physical activity. The
concurrent presence of all 4 characteristics
was defined as a healthy overall lifestyle.
They used logistic regression to assess
temporal and regional trends.
Participants. A total of 1455084 participants
aged 18 to 74 years were included in the 7
surveys.

 Results. The percentages of individuals who

did not smoke (4% increase) and had a healthy

weight (10% decrease) showed the strongest
temporal changes from 1994 to 2007. There
was little change in fruit and vegetable
consumption or physical activity. The prevalence
of healthy lifestyles increased minimally over
time and varied modestly across regions; in
2007, percentages were higher in the Northeast
(6%) and West (6%) than in the South (4%) and
Midwest (4%).

Conclusions. Because of the large increases

in overweight and the declines in smoking, there
was little net change in the prevalence of
healthy lifestyles. Despite regional differences,
the prevalence of healthy lifestyles across the
United States remains very low.

Aim
The aim of the survey was to find out if
healthy life style is important for a students
and what they do to lead healthy life style of
Vilnius College?
Respondents
We surveyed 100 student of Vilnius College,
90% female and 10% male and the age was
bettween 18 and 22.

Method of research
We made a survey which included of
10 main question about smoking,
consuming alcohol, fruits and
vegetables, and engaging in physical
activity.

Findings
The findings of our survey reveal that 99% of
all students are interested in healthy living
and a vast majority of students do exercises
2-3 times a week.
85% of respondents do not smoke and those
who are smoking use to do it 5 and more
cigarettes per day.
94% of participants consume alcohol once a
month.
A vast majority of respondents visit to
physician to check their health once a half
year.

Conclusion
The conclusion of our survey is that a
vast majority of students try to live
healthier, do exercises as often as it
possible, however, a few respondents
still concume alcohol once a week.

Suggestions (1)
To sum up, we have a few suggestions
how to improve and increase not just
interests of students of healthy living,
but also how to encourage them to
engage in productive activities, for
instance, to use less of alcohol, to drink
more water, eat fruits and vegetables
every day and of course visit phisician
not just in case they are sick, but to visit
phisician regularly to check their
condition of health.

Suggestions (2)
Moreover, we therefore strongly
recommend that in Vilnius College
there should be a free water device
which provides fresh water.
Furthermore, we suggest to start
selling various fruits and vegetables in
Vilnius College canteen.

References
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?
vid=5&sid=fd4d2308-6229-4b8a-ad2ddf12dfdb9abd
%40sessionmgr198&hid=118&bdata=JnNpd
GU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d
%3d#db=cmedm&AN=22095344

http://exercise.about.com/od/healthinju
ries/a/healthylifestyl.htm