HEALTH BEHAVIOR PROFILES OF KOREAN BABY BOOMERS: EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED HEALTH CONCERNS AND MASTERY

Abstract

Health behaviors including health-risk and preventive behaviors are closely linked to various health outcomes and longevity. This study aimed to identify distinct profiles of health behaviors among Korean Baby Boomers (born between 1955 and 1963) and examine factors (e.g., demographic characteristics, perceived health and illness, and mastery) distinguishing health behavior profiles. We analyzed a sample of 4,053 respondents from the Korean Baby Boomer Panel Study in 2014. Latent class analysis was applied to six health-risk (smoking, drinking) and preventive (exercise, health check-up, and supplement and herbal medicine intake) behaviors to classify profiles. We identified five different combinations of health-risk and preventive behaviors: a) moderate risk and low preventive (34%), b) low risk and high preventive (22%), c) high risk and high preventive (16%), d) moderate risk and moderate preventive (14%), and e) high risk and low preventive (13%). Multinomial regression analyses for the pattern membership indicated that respondents who reported higher levels of health concerns were more likely to belong to the high risk and high preventive pattern, compared to the moderate risk and moderate preventive pattern. Also, respondents with a stronger sense of mastery were less likely to be in the low risk and high preventive pattern. Our findings suggest that different levels of health concerns and sense of mastery are reported by individuals who engaged in certain patterns of health behaviors among Korean Baby Boomers, which may highlight the potential importance of examining different types of health behaviors as patterns.