The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies held a workshop, December 13-14, 2004, to estimate the contributions of lifestyle-related factors to preventable death. The workshop's statement of task included these specific questions:
- What are the best available methods for estimating the number of preventable deaths among the leading causes of death in the United States?
- Can scientists estimate the relative contribution of lifestyle-related factors as causes of preventable deaths with an acceptable level of accuracy?
- What are the best measures of the public health burden of these preventable deaths: the number of preventable deaths, years of life lost, reduction in quality of years lived, disabilities caused by lifestyle factors, or the economic costs of death and disability?
- What types of estimates provide the most scientifically sound basis for public policies that aim to reduce preventable deaths from lifestyle-related factors?
The workshop was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President of the Institute of Medicine moderated the workshop, which included presentations from experts in statistical design, epidemiology, quality-of-life measures, communication, and public policy and discussions among the participants. Panels of experts addressed the following topics:
- methodological issues when estimating the public health burden of lifestyle factors;
- estimating "attributable risk" in practice;
- alternative ways of measuring the health burden; and
- public policy issues
Dr. Michael Stoto, workshop rapporteur was charged with summarizing the highlights of the presentations and discussions from the two days and presenting them to the audience. At the end of the second day, Dr. Fineberg asked each participant to provide observations on lesson learned from the workshop and ideas for possible next steps.
This report summarizes the workshop presentations and discussions. Neither the workshop nor the summary is designed to draw conclusions or offer collective recommendations. In particular, the section on lessons learned and next steps should be understood as observations made by participants.