The study found that 26% of all deaths are attributable to smoking, 24% to physical inactivity, 12% to poor diet and 0.4% to unhealthy alcohol consumption.

‘Smoking reduces life expectancy in men by 3.1 years and lack of
physical activity reduces life expectancy by 3 years in women.’

Researchers analyzed data from ICES and the Statistics Canada 2009-2010 Canadian Community Health Survey.




The study found that 26% of all deaths are attributable to smoking, 24% to physical inactivity, 12% to poor diet and 0.4% to unhealthy alcohol consumption.
Smoking was the top risk factor for men, representing a loss of 3.1 years. For women, it was lack of physical activity, representing a loss of 3 years.
Canadians who followed recommended healthy behaviors had a life expectancy 17.9 years greater than individuals with the unhealthy habits.
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"Our approach is a new way of measuring the impact of health problems on life expectancy," said Dr. Manuel. "In an era of big data, we should be moving beyond the old methods that have remained largely unchanged for the past 60 years."
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