THE EFFECTS OF SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS ON EXERCISE AND SMOKING - AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES

The aim of this article is to examine the effects of socioeconomic sta tus (as measured by education, income, and labor force status) on patt erns of exercise and smoking for three age groups: persons aged 25 to 44, 45 to 64, and 65 and over. Two hypotheses drawn from the literatur e are tested: (a) that socioeconomic status is associated with risky l ifestyle behaviors and (b) that the effect of socioeconomic status is greater for younger and middle-aged groups than for older age groups. Logistic regression analyses are performed on the 1990 Canadian Health Promotion Survey Our results indicate that socioeconomic status affec ts health behaviors in relatively important ways, but this depends on the measure, the specific behavior, and the age group. The findings ar e discussed in relation to controversies about the existence of a cult ure of poverty and its impact on health behaviors, as well as to sever al age pattern hypotheses.