Lifestyle & Disease - Lifestyle and Disease: An Introduction (GCSE Biology)

Lifestyle and Disease: An Introduction

Risk Factors and Non-Communicable Disease

If a person is exposed to risk factors, they could have a greater likelihood of suffering from a disease. These risk factors can be lifestyle factors (e.g. diet, smoking and alcohol intake) or environmental factors (e.g. air pollution).

Lifestyle Factors

• Lifestyle factors can increase risk of non-communicable disease. Lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, alcohol intake and smoking, can change the risk of suffering from certain non-communicable diseases.
• Lifestyle factors can increase risk at different levels. If you decide to increase your alcohol intake, smoking or worsen your diet, you would increase your risk of non-communicable diseases on a local level. If an area is more impoverished, there may be an increase in alcohol intake and smoking. This would lead to a greater incidence of non-communicable diseases on a national level. If a country is less economically developed, it may have a worse diet, higher rate of smoking and greater alcohol intake on the whole, thus leading to higher rate of non-communicable disease in that nation. This shows the effect of lifestyle factors on a global level.

Environmental Factors

• Environmental factors can also increase risk of non-communicable disease. In addition to lifestyle factors, there are some environmental factors that can affect risk. For example, at a local level we may see asbestos in buildings, whilst at a national level we may see poor air pollution.