Living habits. Progress report 2009

2010-03-19

The Swedish National Institute of Public Health (SNIPH) annually reports on lifestyle issues that are of great importance for public health. This report is focused on living habits, emanating from results from National Public Health Survey, with main focus on lifestyle.

The report indicates that social differences in unhealthy living habits have decreased somewhat from 2004 compared to 2009, but still remain large. For example, four times as many women with little education smoke every day compared with women with extensive education.

Statistics also show that people with extensive education and strong financial margins more often have good eating habits and are more physically active than people with a low income and little education. People with some kind of disability show an overrepresentation of unhealthy living habits.

Previous efforts show that good living habits in society can be promoted and unhealthy living habits can be prevented through greater equality and participation in society. Additionally, it has been shown that access to information, efforts targets on risk groups, greater supervision and better cooperation with various actors in society have a positive effect.

In the past year, the Swedish National Institute of Public Health has worked with health promotion efforts backed by strong scientific evidence of promoting living habits that can in turn prevent morbidity and reduce healthcare costs.