SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Health Behavior”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

PubMed2004

Baseline assessment of the health status and health behaviors of African Americans participating in the activities-for-life program: a community-based health intervention program.

Obesity is a serious problem in the United States and is associated with hypertension, diabetes, and other health problems such as heart disease and some forms of cancer. There is a higher prevalence of being overweight among African American adults than among their Caucasian counterparts. The objective of this study was to assess baseline health behaviors and health status (hypertension, body mass indices, cholesterol and blood sugar levels) of African Americans participating in a community-based health education and physical fitness program. The sample consisted of 1.34 African American adults (30% males) from a low-income urban area in the Midwest. A health survey was administered to assess their health behaviors and previously diagnosed health problems. Additional data was obtained from health screenings to obtain current information on height, weight, and blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In addition to the sample being markedly overweight and obese (30% and 60% respectively), the results of the health screenings indicated a disproportionate number of participants (62%) with hypertension; 74% of the male participants had high blood pressure. Moreover, the self-reported data suggested that the participants had poor eating habits, sedentary lifestyles, and previously diagnosed health conditions (hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels) that were comparable to the results of their health screenings. These findings suggest that culturally-relevant, community-based programs that incorporate both nutritionl education and physical fitness are needed in order to educate and motivate participants to decrease behaviors that put them at risk for obesity and other health related problems.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Using self-report to improve substance abuse risk assessment in behavioral health care.

BACKGROUND: Primary care and behavioral health clinicians frequently fail to detect substance-related problems among their patients, thereby leading to increased morbidity and mortality and health care costs. A managed behavioral health care organization(MBHO) conducted a quality improvement initiative in which clients seeking outpatient psychotherapy were screened by self-report for substance-related problems, and clinicians were provided with feedback in cases of discrepant findings. METHOD: Client self-report questionnaires, which included items inquiring regarding problems related to substance abuse, were administered at multiple points during treatment episodes. Clinicians were also asked to complete assessments, including indicating the presence of a substance abuse problem. RESULTS: Clinicians failed to identify substance abuse problems in > 80% of the cases where the patient endorsed items clearly related to substance abuse on the outcome questionnaire. In the quality improvement intervention, the MBHO sent letters alerting clinicians to the clients' self-reported substance abuse problems. The concordance between clinician assessment and client self-reported problems then increased significantly. DISCUSSION: Results of the study argue for the utility of using client self-report measures as part of a comprehensive effort to measure and improve the effectiveness of behavioral health care treatment services.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1998

[Internalized norms and social norms relating to negative health behaviors. The relationship of sociodemographic characteristics and reference groups].

So-called "negative health behaviors" (e.g. smoking, excessive eating/drinking), which are related to morbidity and mortality, are generally well known to the public. However there are many who undertake negative health behaviors despite knowing of their negative health effects. Using a mail survey of subjects aged 25 to 54, we examined reasons and justifications for engaging in negative health behaviors and their related factors from the lay person's perspective. Concerning the reasons for negative health behaviors, we hypothesized seven concepts (work priority, group harmony priority, the contribution to relaxation, tools for communication, prior orientation focused on the present, individualistic priority, and appearance), and devised multiple questions for each concept. The results are as follows. 1. Compared to females, males tended to support of the five concepts about the internalized norms concerned with negative health behaviors (e.g. the tendency of each individual to approve or disapprove of the reasons for negative health behaviors). In females, the younger generation and those that were married expressed more support than the older and the unmarried. There were differences in males according to occupation. 2. Concerning which reference groups had the largest influence on the social norms concerned with negative health behaviors (e.g. the perceptions as to what degree a group regards the reasons about negative health behaviors as desirable), most perceived that the "office" and "friends" groups would be more supportive of reasons for negative health behaviors than the "family" groups. 3. The health behaviors, which correlated with the internalized norms or the social norms concerned with negative health behaviors, were eating breakfast, smoking, and drinking (frequency and amount). In particular, drinking behavior was influenced most by the internalized norms and the social norms.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Interrelationships between physical activity and other health behaviors among university women and men.

BACKGROUND: The interrelationships among health behaviors are not well understood. The present study examines health behaviors and their relations to various types of physical activity among university seniors. METHODS: The study sample was an ethnically diverse group of 576 men and women (mean age 24.5 +/- 2 years) recruited from a large urban university. Physical activity was assessed with a modification of the Blair Seven-Day Recall by telephone interview, and health behaviors were assessed with the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, College Version. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether health behaviors of men and women were associated with physical activity after adjusting for potential demographic confounders. RESULTS: Nineteen health behavior items were factor analyzed, yielding 5 factors: tobacco use, drinking and driving, unsafe sex, eating fatty foods, and eating healthy foods. Physical activity measures included leisure-time moderate and vigorous activities, flexibility, and strengthening activities. For men, a significant relation was found between three of four indices of physical activity and eating healthy foods (P < 0.05), but no association was noted with other health behaviors. For women, vigorous physical activity was related to eating healthy foods, and strengthening activities were related to eating fewer fatty foods (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with previous studies, physical activity was found to have modest associations with eating behaviors but not with other health-related behaviors.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Behavioral health: the propaedeutic requirement.

Concern about the behavioral effects of spaceflight can be traced back a half century to the earliest preparatory bioastronautics experiments in the mid-1 950s. A central focus of the first primate suborbital flights, as well as the orbital chimpanzee pretest flights of Project Mercury, was the effects of such stressful ventures on the learned performances of these space behavioral health pioneers. The hiatus in spaceflight behavioral health experimental investments that followed these early initiatives began with the advent of the 'human astronaut' era of the mid-1960s, and has dominated the last several decades. Contemporary concerns in this regard have most recently been articulated by a turn-of-the-century Committee of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, providing a visionary view of space medicine during travel beyond Earth orbit. This 2-yr study focused on those most complex behavioral health interactions involving humans in extreme, isolated, and confined microsocieties-areas that have not received the necessary level of attention. The evident behavioral health issues raised by the prospect of long-duration exploratory missions beyond Earth orbit, including performance and general living conditions, recovery and support systems, and the screening, selection, and training of candidate participants are reviewed and discussed.

Aerospace Medicine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Racial differences in health status and health behaviors of older adults.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about racial differences in health status and health behaviors of older adults, especially among the oldest old. OBJECTIVES: To investigate racial differences in health status and health behaviors of African American and Caucasian older adults and to identify factors that influence health behaviors of older adults. METHOD: A descriptive comparative study using data from the Georgia Centenarian Study was conducted. The subjects were 248 older adults (181 Caucasians and 67 African Americans) ranging in age from 60 to 107 years. Demographic characteristics, health status, and four health behaviors were assessed. RESULTS: African Americans had significantly lower mental health (p < .001) and poorer self-perceived health (p < .01) than did their Caucasian counterparts; however, when covaried with education and income, racial differences in self-perceived health were eliminated, and differences in mental health decreased but remained significant (p < .05). Using univariate analyses, only two health behaviors, physical activity and eating breakfast regularly, showed significant racial differences. Relatively few older adults participated in leisure-time physical activity. Logistic regression analyses indicated that race was not significantly related to any health behaviors. Age, gender, and physical health status were most frequently related to health behaviors. CONCLUSION: The findings indicated no robust racial differences in health status and health behaviors, especially when education and income were controlled. More research is recommended to clarify the factors that explain health behaviors of older adults.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2004

The effect of health value and ethnicity on the relationship between hardiness and health behaviors.

Associations among hardiness, health value, and health protective behaviors were examined as a function of ethnicity among 80 African American and 100 European American college students. The role of health value as moderator versus mediator in the hardiness-health behavior link was explored. Racial differences in correlations among hardiness, control, and commitment were found, with stronger relations for African American than European Americans. Moderate positive relations between hardiness, control, commitment, and health value for African American, as contrasted with weak relations between commitment and health value for European Americans, were also shown. A partial mediational effect for health value with personal distress and moderator effects for health value with personal distress and health habits were found for African American only. Race predicted hardiness variables, tobacco and alcohol use, personal distress, and health habits beyond what was accounted for by occupation and income. The ramifications of these data with regard to future studies on hardiness, health value, and health behaviors for African American are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Health behavior among Lithuania's adolescents in context of European Union.

AIM: To compare health behavior patterns of adolescents in Lithuania with health behavior of adolescents in European Union (EU) in 2001/2002. METHODS: The study was carried out in conformity with the methodology of Health Behavior in School-aged Children: a World Health Organization cross-national study. Three country representative samples of schoolchildren, aged 11, 13, and 15, were surveyed in 25 EU countries and regions in 2001/2002 school year. The study instrument was a standardized questionnaire that included questions on alcohol consumption, smoking, illegal drugs use, physical activity, and other patterns of health behavior. The rate or mean values of the targeted health behavior of Lithuanian students were assessed and compared to those calculated as an average for the EU countries and regions. RESULTS: We found an early onset of alcohol consumption among Lithuanian boys. Lithuanian boys and girls across all age groups reported being drunk two and more times more often than their peers from other EU member states. Lithuanian 15-year-old boys smoked more often that did their European peers, while girls smoke more rarely. The prevalence of drugs (marihuana group) use among Lithuanian students is relatively low: the prevalence of drug use among 15-year-olds in Lithuania is two times lower than the prevalence in other EU countries and regions (11.2% vs 24.5% for boys and 4.5% vs 18.3% for girls, respectively). Physical activity of Lithuanian adolescents is rather high in comparison with their EU peers, although many students watch television for > or =4 hours a day. Lithuanian students did not eat sweets often, or drank soft drinks (Coca Cola and other), and they ate fruits and had breakfast every school day. With respect to hygienic habits, approximately only one in 3 boys and every second girl brushed their teeth more than once a day. CONCLUSIONS: There are health behavior differences between adolescents in Lithuania and those in other EU countries. The disparities among health behavior of young people in EU countries and regions require Lithuanian and EU health policy to develop initiatives aimed at decreasing health behavior inequalities.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Health behavior, knowledge and attitudes among Swedish university students.

A range of health behaviors was related to beliefs concerning health practices and health knowledge. A questionnaire dealing with health-related practices, health beliefs and knowledge of health risk factors was answered by 166 male and 179 female students aged 18-30 years at Stockholm University. Female students reported engaging in better health behavior than males. Beliefs about the importance of health behaviors were closely related to their frequency of occurrence. There was only a weak relationship between health behaviors and knowledge of specific health matters. It is concluded that health attitudes rather than health knowledge determine health behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Instructional design strategies for health behavior change.

To help health educators build upon the best of different health behavior change theories, this paper offers a unified set of instructional design strategies for health education interventions. This set draws upon the recommendations of Rosenstock (Health Belief Model), Bandura (Social Cognitive Theory), and Dearing (Diffusion Theory), and uses a modified Events of Instruction framework (adapted from Robert Gagne): gain attention (convey health threats and benefits), present stimulus material (tailor message to audience knowledge and values, demonstrate observable effectiveness, make behaviors easy-to-understand and do), provide guidance (use trustworthy models to demonstrate), elicit performance and provide feedback (to enhance trialability, develop proficiency and self-efficacy), enhance retention and transfer (provide social supports and deliver behavioral cues). Sample applications of these strategies are provided. A brief review of research on adolescent smoking prevention enables consideration of the frequency with which these strategies are used, and possible patterns between strategy use and behavioral outcomes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1984

Health locus of control and self-esteem as related to adolescent health behavior and intentions.

A health behavior and attitudes questionnaire was administered to 246 fifth-grade and 265 sixth-grade students during class time. The questions included 20 children's health locus of control (CHLC) items reported by Parcel and Meyer (1978), 17 children's self-esteem (CSE) items modified from those reported by Coopersmith (1967), and questions concerning past and current behavior and future intentions with respect to cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use. The results indicate that the relationships between dimensions of children's health locus of control and self-esteem and their behaviors and intentions are not large enough to suggest that intervention programs directed at the prevention of detrimental health behaviors focus on the enhancement of self-esteem or the internal locus of control. An appropriate test of the efficacy of such an approach requires a longitudinal rather than a cross-sectional study, monitoring changes in the levels of self-esteem and health locus of control and associated changes in health behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Mortality, health services use, and health behavior in a cohort of well older adults.

OBJECTIVES: To construct an evidence-based Good Health Behavior Score and examine the relationship between aggregate health behaviors, mortality, and health services utilization in the last year of life in a cohort of well older adults. DESIGN: A prospective cohort. SETTING: A large health maintenance organization. PARTICIPANTS: 1867 older enrollees who responded to a health promotion survey. MEASUREMENTS: A baseline self-administered questionnaire was used to ascertain health behaviors in 1987-1988, and vital status was determined 48 months later. A Good Health Behavior Score was calculated, and a Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare high, middle, and low score groups regarding risk of death. For those who died, differences in amount and type of health services utilization in relation to the summary score were compared for the year before death. RESULTS: During the 4 years of follow-up, the mortality rate for the mid-level score group was 50% less, and in the highest score group was 70% less, than in the lowest score group. Among decedents, no significant differences were found between high and low Good Health Behavior score groups for inpatient and outpatient utilization, pharmacy use, or total cost during the last year of life. CONCLUSION: An easily developed and simple health behavior score can predict short term mortality quite strongly. Medical care costs in the last year of life were similar in individuals with higher and lower health behavior scores.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Mechanisms of psychosocial effects on health: the role of social integration, coping style and health behavior.

To analyze the mechanisms by which psychosocial factors affect health, this research investigated social integration and indicators of coping style and their relation to health behaviors and health status. The analysis was conducted using the results of a 1977 survey of 854 household interviews from a multi-stage probability sample of adult residents of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Physical-health status was evaluated by two indices: Self-rated global health and self reports of chronic disability. Mental health was assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Overall, the effects of the psychosocial factors were stronger for mental health than physical health. Social integration was shown to have direct effects on both physical and mental-health status. Internal locus of control was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Chronic conditions were primarily affected by age, sex, and health behavior. Evidence from the path analyses suggested that part of the health benefit that women accrue from social integration and an active coping style is related to better health behavior. This mediation effect was not found for men.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

[Characteristics of smoking, drinking, dietary habits, and physical exercise in health behavioral models].

Various kinds of preventive health behaviors are promoted by health education. The extent of behavioral modification achieved, however, obviously differs from individual to individual according to habits, one of the reasons being the characteristics of various health habits are perceived differently. This cross-sectional study examined the association of indices representing health behavior models with smoking, drinking, dietary habits, and physical exercise. The indices and their meaning were as follows; health locus of control (HLC) and saliency of health are thought to cause the most active behavioral change, health norm relatively passive change, and vulnerability to illness the most passive change. The indices and lifestyle (health related practices) were surveyed by a self-administered questionnaire in a rural town in March 1994. The study sample consisted of 1,010 males and 1,055 females aged 20 years or older who responded to all questions related to the indices. Results are as follows: 1) Smoking and alcohol drinking were associated with vulnerability to illness, suggesting that people who quit smoking or alcohol drinking do so because of perception of their association with illness. Alcohol drinking seemed to have a higher magnitude of being associated with becoming ill or with fear of illness than smoking. 2) Consuming green-yellow vegetables and fresh fish, and physical fitness were associated with internal HLC, saliency of health, and health norm. These habits appeared to be easy to modify by active personal behavior choice. 3) Consuming milk, yogurt, boiled beans, tofu, oranges, and other fruits were associated with saliency of health. These habits seemed to relate to personal sense of being "healthy". 4) It seemed that younger people more likely changed their behavior by active self-management, while, older people changed due to their sense of value or norm. While it is important for health education to promote "self-management of health" by active behavioral change, certain habits are more resistant to change despite educational efforts possibly because of their characteristics in health behavioral models. For cases such as these, techniques promoting passive behavioral change should be considered.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

How can Health Behavior Theory be made more useful for intervention research?

BACKGROUND: The present paper expresses the author's views about the practical utility of Health Behavior Theory for health behavior intervention research. The views are skeptical and perhaps even a bit exaggerated. They are, however, also based on 20-plus years of in-the-trenches research focused on improving health behavior practice through research. DISCUSSION: The author's research has been theoretically driven and has involved measurement of varying variables considered to be important theoretical mediators and moderators of health behavior. Regretfully, much of this work has found these variables wanting in basic scientific merit. Health Behavior Theory as we have known it over the last 25 years or so has been dominated by conceptualizations of behavior change processes that highlight cognitive decision-making. Although much of health behavior practice targets what people do rather than what they think, the logic of focusing on thoughts is that what people think about is the key to what they will do in the future, and that interventions that can measure and harness those processes will succeed to a greater extent than those that do not. Unfortunately, in the author's experience, the premise of cognitive theories has fallen short empirically in a number of ways. The cognitive schemata favored by most health behavior theories are difficult to measure, they do not predict behavioral outcomes very well, there is little evidence that they cause behavior, and they are hard to change directly. SUMMARY: It is suggested that health behavior researchers reconsider their use of these theories in favor of models whose variables are more accessible to observation and experimental manipulation and that most importantly have strong empirical support.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Community effects on access to behavioral health care.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of community-level factors on access to any behavioral health care and specialty behavioral health care. DATA: Healthcare for Communities household survey data, merged to supplemental data from the 1990 Census Area Resource File, 1995 U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Estimates, and 1994 HMO enrollment data. STUDY DESIGN: We use a random intercept model to estimate the influences of community-level factors on access to any outpatient care, any behavioral health care conditional on having received outpatient care, and any specialty behavioral health care conditional on having received behavioral health care. DATA COLLECTION: HCC data were collected in 1997 from about 10,000 households nationwide but clustered in 60 sites. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Individuals in areas with greater HMO presence have better overall access to care, which in turn affects access to behavioral health care; individuals in poorer communities have less access to specialty care compared to individuals in wealthier communities. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings of lower access to specialty care among those in poor communities raises concerns about the appropriateness and quality of the behavioral health care they are receiving. More generally, the findings suggest the importance of considering the current status and expected evolution of HMO penetration and the income level in a community when devising health care policy.

Behavioral Medicine↗

PubMed1995

[Health behavior in Hualien city high school students].

Chronic diseases and motor vehicle-related injuries are currently the major causes of death in Taiwan. Smoking, alcohol use and inappropriate driving behavior are important risk factors. Most health behavior develop during adolescence. Smoking and alcohol use always serve as "gateways" for other adverse health behavior. In this study, 1195 high school students from 27 classes were selected by a random systematic cluster sampling method, and a structured self-administered questionnaire was used to investigate their prevalent health behavior. The prevalence of current smoking was 9.9%, alcohol 18.7% and betel-nut chewing 5.4% among the academic high school students, whereas the prevalence among vocational school students was smoking 20.5%, alcohol 26.6% and betel-nut chewing 13.9%. Seventeen percent of vocational students reported that they often rode motorcycles after alcohol consumption. An aggregation of adverse health behavior, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and chewing betel-nuts was commonly observed. Designing comprehensive intervention programs to prevent and modify high school students adverse health behavior is an important task for school health-officials.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Enhancing health knowledge, health beliefs, and health behavior in Poland through a health promoting television program series.

This study examined the impact of a health promoting television program series on health knowledge and the key factors of the health belief model (HBM) that have led people to engage in healthy behavior (exercising, losing weight, changing eating habits, and not smoking/quitting smoking). Using data from a posttest comparison field study with 15) viewers and 146 nonviewers in Poland, we found that hierarchical regression analysis showed stronger support for the HBM factors of efficacy, susceptibility, seriousness, and salience in their contribution toward health behavior among television viewers compared with nonviewers. Cues to action variables (including television viewing) and health knowledge boosted efficacy among viewers. Without the advantage of receiving health information from the television series, nonviewers relied on their basic disease fears on one hand, and interest in good health on the other to take steps toward becoming healthier. A health promoting television series can increase health knowledge and enhance health beliefs, which in turn contribute to healthy behaviors.

Adolescent↗