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RESEARCH: Til Stürmer, Petra Hasselbach, and Manfred Amelang Personality, lifestyle, and risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer: follow-up of population based cohort BMJ 2006; 0: bmj.38833.479560.80v1 [Abstract]

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Another dimension of strategy to prevent chronic diseases

Takeharu Koga, Atsushi Kawaguchi   (14 May 2006)

Another dimension of strategy to prevent chronic diseases 14 May 2006
Takeharu Koga, Associate professor Kurume University School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kurume, 830-0011 Japan, Atsushi Kawaguchi Send response to journal: Re: Another dimension of strategy to prevent chronic diseases	Since cumulative evidence has established human behaviors as a major contributor to the growing incidence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer worldwide (1), comprehensive measures to modify these risk behaviors are recognized as the cardinal strategy to tackle on imminent burden by those diseases. However, promotion of behavioral modification alone could be hampered by the fact that there are people who do not have chances or resources to pursue healthy behaviors (2). In this context, Sturmer et al (3) have demonstrated another component of human, in addition to behavior, as a significant contributor to the development of chronic diseases; personality. As the authors have concluded, personality is probably associated with the incidence of chronic diseases by way of affecting risk behaviors, which are known to cluster in the same individuals (4), leading to an increased risk for chronic diseases. Better understanding of the underlying mechanisms mediating risk behaviors including clustering of them will establish a basis on which more efficient and widely applicable preventive measures could be established to reduce expanding burden of chronic diseases. References (1) The world health report 2002. Reducing risks, promoting healthy life. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002. (2) Strong K, Mathers C, Leeder S, Beaglehole R. Preventing chronic diseases: how many lives can we save? Lancet 2005;366:1578-82. (3) Sturmer T, Hasselbach P, Amelang M. Personality, lifestyle, and risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer: follow-up of population based cohort. BMJ 2006:bmj.38833.479560.80. (4) Chiolero A, Wietlisbach V, Ruffieux C, Paccaud F, Cornuz J. Clustering of risk behaviors with cigarette consumption: A population-based survey. Prev Med 2006 (in press). Competing interests: None declared