How our healthy choices are all connected (and why this matters)

To improve people’s health and wellbeing requires a holistic approach. At a time when UK health is on the decline and impacting productivity, it’s clear that more needs to be done upstream to drive sustainable behaviour change and help people live in better health.

Strong evidence suggests our lifestyle choices are connected. By engaging with one healthy behaviour, it often spurs another.

Links between mental wellbeing and physical activity are widely accepted, while exercise is associated with healthy food choices and vice versa, according to research¹.

In order to sustain behaviour change and positively impact people’s health, ideally it has to happen across multiple pillars, including physical, nutritional and mental health and wellbeing.

It’s increasingly clear that against this backdrop, more joined-up, holistic interventions are required and the focus has to be ‘upstream’, i.e. helping people to live in better health and drive sustainable behaviour change much earlier.

It’s why at Vitality, we focus on behaviour change across multiple pillars, through a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing and why we see this approach as being far more sustainable and effective.

'Brits walk on average between just 3000 and 4000 steps a day' ⁵

The Vitality Programme incentivises members to be more physically active over time.

On average, 87% of Vitality members reach the recommended⁶ guideline of 150 minutes of exercise each week, compared to just 61% of the UK population⁷.

+56%

Active Rewards are short-term rewards for members reaching weekly activity goals. Their introduction in 2015 saw a 56% increase in active days recorded by members⁸. It also drove a 19% increase in the proportion of members hitting the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline for weekly activity.

+34%

According to research, a further 34% increase in active days for members using Vitality’s Apple Watch benefit⁹.

+22%

Through engagement with the Vitality Programme, our members increase their physical activity levels by 22%.

'Mental ill-health is estimated to cost the UK economy £117.9 billion every year' ¹⁰

Mental wellbeing

With one in 10 experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression and one in five suffering burnout, mental ill-health is a growing challenge in the UK¹¹.

While Talking Therapies – offering support such as CBT and counselling – are available to Vitality members through qualifying Health and Life plans should they need it, there are lifestyle behaviours which can help preserve our mental wellbeing.

Physical activity and mental wellbeing are intrinsically linked.

10% lower

Vitality members exercising at last 3 days per week have a 10% lower risk of anxiety and depression compared to less active members.

22% improvement

Vitality members who are active not only started out with a lower risk, but were more likely to improve their mental wellbeing over time through continued engagement with the Vitality Programme¹².

'In 2022, Vitality members logged over a million mindfulness sessions'

Mindfulness

Studies have shown that mindfulness and meditation can reduce our risk of depression by up to 63%¹³. This is why the Vitality Programme provides members with access to Headspace – a leading mindfulness app – and incentivises by rewarding members with Vitality points for its usage.

27%

Members using the Headspace app saw a 27% greater improvement in their mental wellbeing over time compared to those not using the app.

Nutrition

It’s widely known that there are multiple benefits to a healthy diet. Less understood is how wide-ranging these can be. As well as lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers, what we eat can also improve our gut-health which boosts immunity and supports our mental health.

"More than half in the UK are eating unhealthily, and a quarter are obese" ¹⁴

The Vitality Programme supports members to eat a healthy diet through our Healthy Food benefit, which gives members cashback (up to 40%) on their healthy food shops at Waitrose.

"It is recommended we eat 30 plant-based foods a week" ¹⁵

On average, members see significant improvements in diet over the course of their first year with Vitality.

27%

reduction in consumption of fatty foods.

52%

increase in fruit and vegetable consumption.

1. Beaulieu, K., Oustric, P. & Finlayson, G. The Impact of Physical Activity on Food Reward: Review and Conceptual Synthesis of Evidence from Observational, Acute, and Chronic Exercise Training Studies. Curr Obes Rep 9, 63–80 (2020)
2.Health in 2040: projected patterns of illness in England - The Health Foundation
3.Record numbers not working due to ill health - BBC News
4.Health is wealth?
5. NHS
6. World Health Organisation
7. Behaviour change study on physical activity, RAND Europe, 2018
8. The impact of short-term incentives on physical activity in a UK behavioural incentives programme | npj Digital Medicine (nature.com)
9. Incentives and physical activity: An assessment of the association between Vitality's Active Rewards with Apple Watch benefit and sustained physical activity improvements (rand.org)
10. Mental Health Foundation, 2022
11. Britain’s Healthiest Workplace 2022, Vitality and RAND Europe
12. Vitality analysis 2022-23
13. Harvard Business School, 2018
14. Quarter of adults in England are obese, new survey of public health shows: statistical press release - NHS Digital
15. World Cancer Research Fund, December 2021.