The risk rainbow

How we live, what we do, and where we live and work, all have a major impact on our health and wellbeing throughout our lives. Many of these affect our heart health and our risk of getting cardiovascular disease. Those that increase our likelihood of disease are known as risk factors. Some cannot be changed, such as our age, ethnic background and family history of disease. Others can be changed, like smoking, drinking alcohol, being physically inactive or being overweight, although this is not necessarily easy. These factors, and their impact on our health, are all influenced by each other and by the wider socio-economic, cultural and environmental context. Housing, education, childhood experiences, work, deprivation and the urban and rural environments around us all have significant roles to play.

We look at some of these in more detail below.