Risk factors for ill health: how do we specify what is ‘modifiable’?

Abstract

If you work in public health or epidemiology, you will be familiar with the term ‘modifiable risk factors’. Searching PubMed in December 2023 for titles that included the term ‘modifiable risk’ returned 1222 results. Expanding this search to include both titles and abstracts returned 13,958 results. The term often refers to health behaviours such as smoking, alcohol intake, exercise, and diet. However, there does not seem to be a specific definition of what is classed as ‘modifiable’ in the context of the risk of ill health. Although the term is also used to refer to factors indirectly affecting health, such as education or housing, current use tends to focus on individual behaviours, largely neglecting the role of systemic and structural determinants of disease and health inequities.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Nisreen A. Alwan: orcid.org/0000-0002-4134-8463

ORCID for Ann Berrington: orcid.org/0000-0002-1683-6668

ORCID for Rebecca B. Hoyle: orcid.org/0000-0002-1645-1071

ORCID for Simon D.S. Fraser: orcid.org/0000-0002-4172-4406

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