Age differences in personal health practices of rural women.

Abstract

Do older rural women have more positive health practices than younger rural women? Belloc and Breslow ( 2 ) examined seven practiceseating breakfast, snacking, regular exercise, sleep, smoking, alcohol use, and maintaining desirable body weight-in an urban population and found that more of the older than the younger respondents practiced all seven of these behaviors. Other researchers (1, 3, 4 ) also reported higher frequencies of positive health behaviors in older urban populations. The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of health practices among rural women and to analyze differences among age groups. A survey was conducted by mail of 10 rural counties in Kansas. Potential subjects (n = 1500) were selected from telephone directories. The survey included selected demographic information and seven personal health practices. The final response rate was 44.5%. The distribution of respondents by age, race, and marital status was comparable to that of the 1980 Census population. The proportion of respondents with higher education (36 9 % ) is greater than that of the female population in Kansas (23.6%). There was a s~gnificant ( X q p 5 .01) difference between younger and older women for six of the health practices. The proportions of rural women who are nondrinkers, nonsmokers, nonsnackers, and breakfast eaters are higher in the older age groups. More younger women exercise and maintain desirable body weight than do older women Sleep did nor show a significant age-related pattern. Older rural women do have a greater number of positive health practices than do younger rural women, but older rural women in Kansas did not report as many positive health practices as their urban counterparts. The greater proportion of older rural women not exercising and maintaining desirable body weight may be the result of several factors not examined in this study, such as metabolism, lack of support or facilities for exercise, and diet. The greater proportion of nonsmokers among rural women compared to urban women may also explain the lower proportion of older rural women with desirable body weight. Finally, it must be noted that the low response rate may have introduced a bias inro the results. With these limitations, the findings must be carefully weighed.