Abstract
This study was performed in order to investigate the connection between lifestyle, quality of life, and health status by way of a questionnaire-based survey. The questionnaire was mailed in February 1993 to 2,460 persons aged between 18 and 88, randomly selected from the CPR (Danish Central Register), and 7,222 persons from the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959–61. A total of 1,501 persons between the ages of 18 and 88 years and 4,626 persons between the ages of 31 and 33 years returned the questionnaire (response rates 61.0% and 64.1%, respectively). Variables investigated in this study were: alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, type of diet, amount of exercise taken, quality of life, self-assessed health status, and number of medical complaints from which respondent suffered. The results showed that health has a stronger correlation to quality of life (r = 0.5, p < 0.0001) than it has to lifestyle (r = 0.2, p < 0.0001). It is concluded that preventable diseases could be more effectively handled through a concentrated effort to improve quality of life rather than through an approach that focuses solely on the factors that are traditionally seen to reflect an unhealthy lifestyle.