“The Vital 5 initiative advocates for people, communities and organisations to make improvements in/to five factors that have a major impact on health at an individual and population level.

We believe that reducing obesity and harmful drinking, stopping smoking, controlling blood pressure, and identifying and improving poor mental health will help prevent ill health, promote good health, and improve detection, management and treatment of existing conditions.

Long-term conditions and diseases that are associated with the Vital 5 include: 

• Blood pressure – hypertension 
• Mental health – anxiety and depression 
• Obesity – diabetes, heart disease and cancer 
• Smoking – heart disease, respiratory disease and cancer 
• Alcohol – liver disease, mental health conditions and cancer. 

By focusing on these five key metrics, we believe we can support prevention, detection, health promotion, management and treatment wherever there is an opportunity to do so.”

Find more from King’s Health Partners (UK, 2022)

John McGirr and Leanna Minahan from the Royal Borough of Greenwich explain the campaign to encourage retailers to stop selling low-cost, high-strength (more than 6.5%) alcohol products.

This video featured in the King’s Health Partners and South East London Integrated Care System’s South East London Population Health conference on 14th June 2022.