LATENT CLASS ANALYSIS APPLIED TO HEALTH BEHAVIORS

The research literature points to health behaviour being multidimensio nal but is not consistent regarding the number or nature of dimensions . In this study, health behaviour data was subjected to latent class a nalysis, which is appropriate when underlying types rather than contin ua of health behaviour are hypothesized. Questionnaire data on various eating behaviours and on exercising, drinking alcohol, and smoking we re obtained from 109 adult subjects. Each behaviour was dichotomized, the split being at the point which best corresponded to contemporary p ublic health advice. Latent class analysis of the eating behaviours wa s consistent with a two class model of eating: healthy vs more mixed e ating. Thereby, a single eating behaviour variable was created. Latent class analysis of this eating behaviour along with the exercising, al cohol, and smoking behaviours was modestly consistent with a two-type model of health behaviour: healthy behaviour vs more mixed behaviour. Latent class analysis may be an appropriate technique to apply to heal th behaviour data if there is reason to believe that the latent variab les are categorical rather than continuous.