Preventive health behaviors are crucial for older adults' well-being. This study examined the factors that influence the practice of positive daily health behaviors over time in a sample of older adults (N = 1266) and investigated whether explanatory factors differ by health behavior, gender or race. Physical activity, weight maintenance, smoking, alcohol consumption and sleep patterns were examined as dependent variables. Independent variables included demographic characteristics, baseline health behavior, health status variables, psychological factors and social network characteristics. Results indicate that age and health status are important predictors of preventive health behaviors. However, the factors that predict preventive health behaviors vary by behavior, gender and race. The independent variables included in this study were most successful in explaining cigarette smoking and weight maintenance, and least successful in explaining amount of sleep. In addition, results suggest that social network variables are particularly influential for women's health behaviors, while health status is more influential among men. Greater education predicts better health behaviors among whites, while formal social integration seems particularly important for the health behaviors of older black women. These results indicate that examining older adults' health behaviors by race and gender leads to a fuller understanding of these behaviors.

Self-rated physical health was assessed by asking respondents to characterize their health as poor, fair, good, very good or excellent. Respondents were also asked to indicate whether or not they had any of the following chronic health problems during the last 12 months: arthritis or rheumatism, lung disease, hypertension, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, foot problems, stroke, broken bones, or urine beyond control. These items were summed to create a measure of number of chronic conditions. A functional health index was created with items measuring the amount of difficulty the respondent has in bathing, climbing stairs, walking and doing heavy housework. The resulting index ranged from 1 = worst functional health (i.e. most severe functional impairment) to 4 = best functional health (i.e. no functional impairment).

With kind regards

Sophia

Managing Editor

Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education