Overview
- Fewer than half of respondents meet each item in the SEN’s ten-point guidance, despite 95% believing habits affect brain health and 44% unsure which habits help.
- Sleep falls short for many, with 56% sleeping under seven hours and half reporting non-restorative rest, while nearly half sit over six hours a day and screen time is high, especially among young adults.
- Only 37% reach three hours of weekly exercise, more than 35% devote little or no time to brain-stimulating activities, and 60% say they learned nothing new in the past year.
- Preventive care and lifestyle lag: only about half get routine blood tests, four in ten rarely check blood pressure, diets miss fruit, vegetables and fish targets as 24% eat pastries daily, 11% drink alcohol almost daily and 15% smoke.
- SEN leaders say more than 90% of strokes and up to 40% of Alzheimer’s could be prevented through modifiable habits, urging education from childhood and routine vascular-risk checks in a country where such diseases affect over 23 million and are the top cause of disability.