The Clustering of Health Behaviours in Older Australians and its Association with Physical and Psychological Status, and
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Clustering of Health Behaviours in Older Australians and its Association with Physical and Psychological Status, and Sociodemographic Indicators Barbara Griffin, PhD & Kerry A. Sherman, PhD & Mike Jones, PhD & Piers Bayl-Smith, BPsych
# The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2014
Abstract Background Increasing life expectancies, burgeoning healthcare costs and an emphasis on the management of multiple health-risk behaviours point to a need to delineate health lifestyles in older adults. Purpose The aims of this study were to delineate health lifestyles of a cohort of older adults and to examine the association of these lifestyles with biological and psychological states and socio-economic indices. Methods Cluster analysis was applied to data derived from the self-reported 45 and Up cohort study (N=96,276) of Australians over 45 years, regarding exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and cancer screening behaviours. Results Six lifestyle clusters emerged delineated by smoking, screening and physical activity levels. Individuals within health-risk dominant clusters were more likely to be male, living alone, low-income earners, living in a deprived neighbourhood, psychologically distressed and experiencing low quality of life. Conclusions Health lifestyle cluster membership can be used to identify older adults at greatest risk for physical and psychological health morbidity. Keywords Health behaviour . Cluster analysis . Cancer screening . Ageing . Audience segmentation B. Griffin : M. Jones : P. Bayl-Smith Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia K. A. Sherman (*) Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia e-mail: [email protected] K. A. Sherman Westmead Breast Cancer Institute, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Inroduction The benefits of preventive health behaviours (e.g. exercise, eating fruit and vegetables), and the adverse outcomes associated with risky health behaviours (e.g. smoking, excessive alcohol consumption), in terms of health and mortality have been the subject of considerable research [1]. Typically, these behaviours were examined separately, which may be an overly simplistic approach as there is evidence that they co-occur as lifestyle patterns within population sub-groups [2–4]. This co-occurrence appears to create synergistic effects, with increasing risk of premature mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality beyond the expected additive effects of the separate behaviours [5–7]. Prior studies have demonstrated transfer effects, whereby health-promoting and health-harmful behaviours tend to be highly correlated within behaviour groupings, or clusters, but not between these groupings [8]. Furthermore, campaigns targeting just one health behaviour can have unintended consequences for modifying other health behaviours that co-occur [1]. Consequently, there is a growing emphasis on managing multiple healthrisk behaviours as opposed to single ri
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