London, Feb. 21 -- A new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health has shown that a variety of environmental factors, including lifestyle choices (such as smoking and physical activity) and living conditions, have a more significant impact on health and premature death than our genes.

The study, which analysed data from nearly half a million UK Biobank participants, examined the influence of 164 environmental factors and genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases on ageing, age-related diseases, and premature death. The findings were published today in Nature Medicine.

As per the key findings, the environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in risk of death, compared to less than 2% explained by genetic predispositi...