Dr's Casebook: Men and women make New Year's resolutions differently

Dr Keith Souter writes: Generally speaking only about one in ten people who make a New Year resolution will manage to keep it. It is an interesting thing well worth researching, for this is a prime time to make a real difference to your life and to your health. The fact is that if you are careful about how you make a resolution you can maximise your chance of success.

It is estimated that about seven million people make a health-related resolution every year. The most common five are to lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more, eat more fruit and vegetables, and to drink less alcohol. You can see why people choose these after Christmas. Every one of them is a great idea, so if you decide to make such a resolution, well done. The next step is to make it in the right way. You may be interested to know that researchers at the University of Hertfordshire studied this by following up 3,000 people for a year. At the start of the study half were sure that they would be able to achieve their resolution.

The main thing they found was that men and women need to formulate their resolutions differently. Men were far more likely to succeed when they set goals for themselves and were specific about their goals. In other words, instead of just saying that they were going to lose weight, they had better chance of success if they aimed at losing a pound a week. Similarly, rather than say they will exercise more, they should set specific times aside for a specific type of exercise. With women, they had a better chance of success if they told other people about their resolution. Women benefit from using a network of family and friends to encourage them.

May I finish by suggesting that the best resolution you can make is also the easiest, for both males and females. Resolve to get vaccinated and get your booster when you are able to.

So, Happy New Year and good luck.