Abstract:

Background – Chronic disease has now become a major contributor to mortality, the increase in risk factors has had serious impact on health. Much attention has been paid to healthy lifestyle and the need for behavior change. Behavior is transitioning in many developing countries due to urbanization, improved income and access to technological advances. This has resulted in increase in risk factors such excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and inactivity. More persons are seeking processed and prepackaged meals and consuming more food leading to obesity.

Objective – The objective of the project is to provide a critical look at the social and cultural factors and how they impact health. To explore how health promotion and there interventions impact on the prevalence of these risk factors.

Method – This study will explore at least 10 published articles on this topic the impact of risk factors on health and strategies used to reduce the occurrence of these factors. This review will provide information required to provide recommendations to address prevention of risk factor development.

Results – Results across different studies show that lifestyle behavior influences the development of risk factors. Unhealthy behavior like smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and inactivity is associated with obesity, elevated blood pressures and ultimately the development of chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Conclusion – Risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and inactivity influence the occurrence of chronic illnesses. Surveillance for risk factors must be done and health education must be used as an intervention strategy to prevent the development of risk factors to reduce mortality. 

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