Residents are urged to protect their health and a recent survey highlighted the importance of a healthy heart and lifestyle.
1Life, an insurance company, conducted a Heart Awareness Month online survey with the aim to educate people to better understand their lifestyles and, as a result, manage and reduce their risks towards heart disease.
Through this, the survey indicated that, while people are known to be reasonably good at preventative measures, they were somewhat predisposed to heart disease as a result of their eating habits and family history– coupled with increasing levels of obesity.
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Managing director of 1Life situated in Midrand, Laurence Hillman said, “At 1Life, we continuously keep in touch with our consumers to ensure we understand their lifestyle and related needs. Therefore, in aid of Heart Awareness Month and World Heart Day on 29 September, we ran an online survey with 272 consumers, through our social media channels, to assess whether South Africans understand key facts about heart disease, as well as how predisposed they are to heart disease.”
Hillman added that the reality was that anyone could suffer from a heart attack and so, similarly, they wanted to educate people on how their lifestyle choices impact their hearts and health.
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“Our results revealed that only 27 per cent of their consumers exercise regularly, [wheras] 30 minutes of any physical activity that increases your heart rate, for example, gym, playing sports, playing with your children, and doing housework [can be beneficial]. We know that inactivity contributes towards obesity and therefore, it is evident that consumers need to take the effects of their lifestyle choices more seriously,” Hillman said.
The survey also indicated that almost 50 per cent of people ate high-fat foods including offal, fried meat, meat with visible fat and foods cooked using vegetable or coconut oil more than three times a week. “This placed them at very high risk of heart disease and in fact, according to the Heart and Health Foundation, this is not only prevalent for adults, but clearly where one in four girls and one in five boys between the ages of two to 14 years are obese, there is no doubt that children are a concern here too,” Hillman said.
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The survey revealed that 61 per cent of respondents were able to identify the symptoms of a heart attack and 68 per cent regularly checked their blood pressure and cholesterol at least once a year. “Further to this, only 16.5 per cent of consumer surveyed are smokers, which is much better than one would expect.
“Regular check-ups and continued exercise goes a long way in preventing heart disease and other related illnesses. The fact that such a high percentage of consumers can identify symptoms of a heart attack indicates that early diagnosis and care can be taken.”
Hillman concluded, “Even though we all have busy lifestyles, it is important to pay attention to living a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, this Heart Awareness Month, we want to remind people about the importance of eating well and going for regular check-ups to prevent falling victim to a heart attack.”
