The effect of lifestyle on some non-communicable diseases: aspects of a person’s lifestyle

The idea

Lifestyle means the choices and habits a person repeats over years, and these can raise or lower the risk of non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and some cancers. Risk factors include diet high in saturated fat, salt or sugar, smoking, alcohol intake, low exercise, and obesity. These factors often interact: poor diet and inactivity can cause obesity, which increases type 2 diabetes risk. A person cannot always control risk, but changing habits can reduce it. For example, stopping smoking lowers heart disease risk over time. Scientists study large groups to link habits with disease rates, since individual cases cannot prove cause.

What earns the marks

• Identify named lifestyle aspects such as diet, smoking, alcohol, exercise and obesity.
• Link each lifestyle aspect to a named non-communicable disease, for example smoking to coronary heart disease or lung cancer.
• Explain that lifestyle factors often interact rather than acting alone, for example poor diet plus inactivity leading to obesity.
• Describe how risk can be reduced by changing habits, for example stopping smoking or increasing exercise.
• Recognise that lifestyle is not the only influence, since genetics and environment also affect disease risk.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating a risk factor as a certain cause.

  Put it right: Say it increases the chance of disease, not that it always causes it.

• Listing only one lifestyle aspect when the question asks for aspects in the plural.

  Put it right: Include at least two named factors.

• Confusing communicable and non-communicable disease.

  Put it right: Non-communicable diseases are not spread between people.

Exam tips

• Name the lifestyle factor and the disease together in one sentence to secure both marks.
• Use comparative language such as higher risk or lower risk rather than saying a factor is bad.
• If asked to evaluate, mention that correlation does not prove causation and that other factors may be involved.