Health planning for the future: comparative risk assessment of five major lifestyle risk factors: evidence from the Wirral, UK

Background The aim of this study was to quantify and compare the burden of disease attributable to five major lifestyle-related risk factors in a UK Primary Care Trust (Wirral) using World Health Organizations' (WHO) comparative risk assessment (CRA) methodology to demonstrate its practical utility for informing local policy initiatives. Methods WHO CRA methodology was adopted using exposure data from a local lifestyle survey, disease risk factor relationships published by the WHO and local mortality data to calculate risk factor attributable deaths and years of life lost (YLL). Results Smoking remains by far the leading cause of deaths followed by overweight and obesity and low fruit and vegetable intake. Alcohol ranked last by number of deaths, but second by YLL indicating its high contribution to deaths at younger ages. Conclusions We have demonstrated the utility of WHO CRA methodology to influence health-related policy-making at a local level. Primary prevention should remain high on the agenda of government initiatives to reduce the future burden of ill health. Future research in this area could look at more in-depth national data to cover a wider range of risk factors addressing some of the methodological and data shortcomings identified in this study.