Overview
The Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model (LRRM) developed by Prevention Research InstituteTM says that lifestyle-related health problems result from an interaction of quantity and frequency choices people make and their levels of biological risk for that problem. Psychological and social factors influence the choices people make.
The LRRM is based on a formula to help reduce risk for all lifestyle-related health problems, including the most common types of heart disease and certain forms of cancer.
A detailed overview of the LRRM, "A Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model for Preventing High‑Risk Substance Use Across the Lifespan," was published in Prevention Science in 2023. CLICK HERE to read the full article.
Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model in Prime Programs
The story of Prime For Life® is woven around the LRRM. Alcoholism and addiction are also lifestyle-related health problems, and to understand how they develop, it is helpful to review how other health problems develop. Biological factors and quantity/frequency choices combine to make up total risk. They interact with one another so that, depending on the choices made, the health problem either does or does not occur. The quantity/frequency choices needed to trigger the health problem depend on the level of inborn biological risk. While the Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model was first developed to address health problems like addiction, it applies equally well to impairment problems, such as impaired driving.
Psychological factors like attitudes and personality traits and social factors like having friends who enjoy heavy drinking influence quantity and frequency choices. These factors do not directly cause the problems but rather influence choices, which interact with biological factors to determine whether or not a problem will occur.
Prime For Life and the Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model collaborate to help people understand problems could happen to them, then identify what choices will prevent problems and what people will support those choices.