Health Behaviors and Related Factors in People with Chronic Illness

Abstract

As chronic illnesses become increasingly prevalent, nurses have become more concerned about health behaviors that affect the management of such chronic illnesses. However, few investigators have examined factors related to health behaviors in Taiwanese with chronic illnesses. Determining the factors that influence engagement in health behaviors is key to developing effective health promotion programs. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of education, social support, disease status and clinical status on the performing of health behaviors among people with chronic illnesses. Face-to-face structured interview of a sample of 372 Chinese-speaking adult outpatients who live in Taiwan was used. The theoretical framework of the investigation was tested using structural equation modeling techniques. This model proved to be a fair theoretical framework, explaining 29.9% of variance in health behaviors. The results identify the factors that are useful predictors of health behaviors by people with chronic illness. However, as less than one-third of the variance in health behaviors was explained by the relationships hypothesized in the model, additional variables that could account for more of this variance should be included in future research.