The impact of a population-based multi-factorial lifestyle intervention on changes in long-term dietary habits

Five years of lifestyle intervention improved self-reported mental and physical health in a general population

“…The Inter99 study was a nonpharmacological intervention over 5 years, and we have already shown beneficial effects of the intervention on lifestyle (Pisinger et al, 2008;Toft et al, 2008b;von Huth et al, 2008). The less steep fall in the physical health over time, is hopefully reflecting that the lifestyle intervention had an effect on health and we hope to see fewer hard end-points in the intervention groups, in a few years.…”

“…We found that more smokers have quit, dietary habits were significantly improved and men's physical activity was significantly higher over time than in the control group (Pisinger et al, 2008;Toft et al, 2008b;von Huth et al, 2008).…”

“…Participants in the high intensity intervention group, who were at high risk of CVD (daily smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance) were offered participation in a smoking cessation group or/and a diet-and-exercise group (6 meetings within 6 months) and re-invited after 1 and 3 years for the same intervention (Jorgensen et al, 2003;Pisinger et al, 2005a,b;The Inter99 Steering Committee, 2008;Toft et al, 2008cToft et al, , 2007. Participants at low risk of CVD were followed by questionnaires.…”

The relationship between lifestyle and self-reported health in a general population

“…We have previously published results showing a beneficial long-term effect of the Inter99 intervention (quitting smoking, improved diet, increased physical activity (PA) and decreased alcohol consumption) (Pisinger et al, 2008;Toft et al, 2008;von Huth et al, 2008).…”

Personal Factors Predictive of Health-Related Lifestyles of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Second, most studies concluding that such relationships existed were based exclusively on subgroups of older adults with certain diagnostic characteristics (e.g., diabetes, arthritis, cancer, depression) rather than samples of typical community-residing older adults. Moreover, a lack of comprehensive and valid lifestyle measures was found in several population-based studies that investigated variables associated with lifestyles in older adults; that is, in these large-scale surveys, healthpromoting behaviors and lifestyles were examined simply by asking a few questions that focused mostly on the habits of exercise, diet, or smoking (Koertge et al, 2003;Toft et al, 2008).…”