Relationships among changes in health behaviors in a six-year U.S. Navy cohort.

Abstract

Abstract : Although the importance of health behaviors in preventing disease and protecting or promoting health has been well demonstrated, the relationship between health behaviors is not clearly understood. Understanding how specific health behaviors are associated with other health behaviors may have implications for designing effective health promotion programs and understanding underlying motivations to practice healthy behaviors in general. This study utilized longitudinal data to examine the relationships among changes in five key lifestyle behaviors among a 6-year cohort of U.S. Navy personnel. Participants were 1,019 active-duty U.S. Navy personnel who completed a health behavior and lifestyle questionnaire in 1988 and 1994. There were several significant, though generally weak, correlations among exercise, diet, alcohol use, cigarette use, and sleep, with absolute values ranging from r = .07 to r = .18. Regression analyses indicated that change in dietary behavior was related to change in exercise activity (p less than or equal .001) and, to a lesser extent, to change in alcohol use (p less than or equal .01). A change in cigarette use was related to a change in the number of hours of nightly sleep (p less than or equal .001). The variance accounted for in each change relationship was small. The results suggest that there is very little overlap among changes in the health behaviors examined in this study and that health promotion interventions should be behavior-specific.