Leading health specialists will use the findings of a 35-year study as an evidence base for calling on members of the UK public to take responsibility for their own health.

The study is the longest of its kind to probe the influence of environmental factors in chronic disease. It identifies five healthy behaviours as being integral to having the best chance of leading a long and disease-free life: taking regular exercise, non-smoking, a healthy bodyweight, a healthy diet and a low alcohol intake.

From 1979 to the present day, researchers from Cardiff University School of Medicine tracked - and continue to track - the lifestyle habits of 2500 men aged 45-59, living in the Caerphilly area of South Wales. They found that the men who followed four or five specified healthy steps - who represent less than one percent of the total cohort - had a 70% reduced chance of developing diabetes; 60% reduced incidents of heart attacks and strokes; 40% fewer cancers; and a reduction of 60% in cases of dementia.

At the 'Healthy Ageing' summit, organised by Cardiff University, representatives from Government, Public Health officials, universities, health services, charities and members of the public will be presented with these findings. Chief among the aims of the summit is to inspire health influencers to renew their efforts in effecting change in the public's take up of these prescribed healthy behaviours.

Now in their late-70s to mid-90s, 30 men from the original Caerphilly cohort will attend the summit as living testimony to the benefits conferred by healthy living. Referring to the summit as the "swan song" of his career, Professor Peter Elwood, who has led the Caerphilly study since its inception, sees the event as a clear evidence-base for a 'wake-up' challenge to the people of the UK.

"Thirty years ago, only 30 men in our study - less than one per cent - followed all five of our recommended healthy steps, which included taking regular exercise, non-smoking, a healthy bodyweight, a healthy diet and a low alcohol intake," said Professor Elwood.

"Although following these steps do not give them complete protection against disease; the men who, despite living healthily, developed a disease, did so at a much older age than the men neglectful of their lifestyle. Thus the development of heart disease was delayed by up to six years, and it was up to around an additional 12 years before dementia took its grip.

"Yet on the less rosy end of the spectrum, 40 men in every 100 lived a life so neglectful that by any definition their lifestyle was unhealthy, and they experienced none of the reductions in disease.

"That was 30 years ago. The appalling fact is that recent surveys across the whole of Wales yield almost identical proportions of men and women following the healthy, and the unhealthy lifestyles that had been found in Caerphilly 35 years ago.

"And the picture isn't much better in England: 53% of men drink more than the recommended daily amount and only half of men meet the government recommended scores for wellbeing. As a country, we must wake up to the preventive power of living a healthy life!"

Drawing from unpublished survey data and blood samples taken from the cohort at various junctures in the study, further analyses are planned. These will investigate the impact of lifestyle on cognitive decline, on prostate cancer and on bowel cancer. The cancer-fighting properties of natural chemicals found in fruit and vegetables are also the subject of continued investigation and will be published in the coming year.

Professor Elwood describes the 2500-strong Caerphilly cohort study as a pilot for a much larger study, involving over half a million subjects in the UK. The gathering of evidence on cognitive decline and dementia will now continue through the UK BIOBANK study, now led by Professor John Gallacher who works alongside Professor Elwood in the School of Medicine.

Unhealthy living has accounted for around 10 per cent of the costs of the NHS in Wales since the study first started, while the annual expenditure on prevention and public health services in Wales is estimated to have been £280M.

The 'Healthy Ageing' summit will be held in the All Nations Centre in Cardiff between 13:00 - 20:30 on 30 October.