b'AGING IN THE 21ST CENTURYThe Role of Lifestyle and intensity of physical activity. Vigorous activityor BMI, greater than or equal to 30for Health Behaviors includes things like cycling, digging, running,the US, Austria, Germany, Sweden, The Lifestyle and health behavior risk factorssuchjogging or swimming. Examples of moderateNetherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Denmark as smoking, physical inactivity and obesity activities are dancing, gardening or walking.and Greece. The US obesity rate of 30% for men have a large impact on health and disability inLight activity includes home repairs and laundry.and 36% for women is almost 10% higher than old age. Both the prevalence of these factors andFigure 4-3 shows the proportion of adults overthe next highest country, Spain. The overall their impact vary across developed countriesage 50 who report doing moderate or vigorousobesity rate for the European countries is 17.6% with the prevalence of obesity and inactivityphysical activity at least once a week, rangingfor men and 24.2% for women. The study also generally higher in the US and England comparedfrom a low of 56% in Poland to a high of 83% inconsiders rates of severe obesity, indicated to Europe. A number of studies explore theseSweden. The prevalence of weekly moderate toby a BMI greater than 35. The difference differences as a possible mechanism to explainvigorous activity in the US is 69% and nearly 75%between the US and these European countries cross-national differences in health and mortali- in England. Americans report the highest levels ofis even greater at the higher end with 9.2% of ty. Another set of studies examines differences ininactivity at 22%. Physical inactivity is associatedAmerican men severely obese (16.5% of wom-behavioral risks in Mexico and the US. with self-reported poor health and diabetes. en), but only 3.3% for men (6.7% for women) Steptoe and Wikman (2010) use comparableObesity is another important risk factor in Europe as a whole. Waist circumference at data from the second wave of ELSA in 2004, wavefor disease that varies across countriesall levels of BMI is higher in the US compared two of SHARE (2004-2007), and the seventh wave(Michaud et al. 2007). Figure 4-4 shows theto the UK, accounting for a large degree of of HRS in 2004 on the frequency, duration andobesity rateindicated by a body mass index,the cross-country differences in diabetes risk (Banks et al. 2012).FIGURE 4-3Percent reporting moderate or vigorous activity in the last week and percent reporting inactivity in Europe and the US: 2004Source: Steptoe and Wikman (2010).80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%Poland Austria Italy France Greece Spain Belgium England Germany Netherlands Denmark Switzerland SwedenCzech Republic United StatesModerate or vigorous activity Inactive72'