Is the Scottish population living dangerously? Prevalence of multiple risk factors: the Scottish Health Survey 2003.
BACKGROUND
Risk factors are often considered individually, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of combinations of multiple behavioural risk factors and their association with socioeconomic determinants.


METHODS
Multinomial logistic regression was used to model the associations between socioeconomic factors and multiple risk factors from data in the Scottish Health Survey 2003. Prevalence of five key risk - smoking, alcohol, diet, overweight/obesity, and physical inactivity, and their risk in relation to demographic, individual and area socioeconomic factors were assessed.


RESULTS
Full data were available on 6,574 subjects (80.7% of the survey sample). Nearly the whole adult population (97.5%) reported to have at least one behavioural risk factor; while 55% have three or more risk factors; and nearly 20% have four or all five risk factors. The most important determinants for having four or five multiple risk factors were low educational attainment which conferred over a 3-fold increased risk compared to high education; and residence in the most deprived communities (relative to least deprived) which had greater than 3-fold increased risk.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of multiple behavioural risk factors was high and the prevalence of absence of all risk factors very low. These behavioural patterns were strongly associated with poorer socioeconomic circumstances. Policy to address factors needs to be joined up and better consider underlying socioeconomic circumstances.
Lawder
Richard
R
Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland, Gyle Square, Edinburgh, UK.
Harding
Oliver
O
Stockton
Diane
D
Fischbacher
Colin
C
Brewster
David H
DH
Chalmers
Jim
J
Finlayson
Alan
A
Conway
David I
DI
D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D015438:Health Behavior; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D016015:Logistic Models; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012606:Scotland; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors