Question

Sam has a family history of cardiovascular disease. At age fifty five, Sam is an overweight smoker who is very concerned about his future health. What is an avoidable risk factor?

Answer 1

Actually there are two avoidable risks here:  1) overeating and 2) smoking.

Answer 2

Answer:

Smoking and bad diet

Step-by-step explanation:

A risk is said to be avoidable if it is an habit of the person(smoking or bad diet), or something related to where the person lives, for example bad quality of the air.

In this problem, we have that Sam has a family history of cardiovascular disease. So in this case, the family history is an unavoidable risk factor, that is, something that no matter what Sam does, is going to be there. However, both smoking and being overweight leads to cardiovascular problems, so added to the family history, there is an even higher change that Sam has cardiovascular problems. Since he can stop smoking and start having a better diet, both smoking and bad diet are avoidable risk factors.