As my colleague Harry Jackson points out, there are plenty of tips out there for living a long and healthy life. But it doesn’t sound like a lot of people are following them.  Only a small proportion of adults follow a healthy lifestyle pattern, and in fact, the numbers are declining, according to an article in the June 2009 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

A growing percentage of adults between the age of 40 and 74 are exercising less, eating smaller amounts of  fruits and vegetables and are still smoking while increasing their alcohol intake, according to data compiled by investigators from the Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. The researchers compared the results of two large-scale studies of the U.S. population in 1988-1994 and in 2001-2006.

In the intervening 18 years, the percentage of adults aged 40-74 years with a body mass index greater than 30 has increased from 28 percent to 36 percent; physical activity 12 times a month or more has decreased from 53 percent to 43 percent; smoking rates have not changed; eating five or more fruits and vegetables a day has decreased from 42 percent to 26 percent; and moderate alcohol use has increased from 40 percent to 51 percent.

The number of people adhering to all 5 healthy habits has decreased from 15 percent to 8 percent, according to the study.

Since people with diagnosed health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol were part of the samples, the researchers sought to determine whether they were following healthy habits to a greater or lesser degree than people without those conditions, and whether adherence had changed over time. The study concluded that people with these conditions or having  or risk factors for these conditions, were no more likely to adhere to a healthy lifestyle pattern than people without them.