FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HEALTH BEHAVIOR AMONG MOTHERS OF LOWER SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS - A BRITISH EXAMPLE

The Health and Lifestyle Survey is the first survey in the U.K. to com pare with the databases available in North America. For the first time detailed information on the health status, beliefs, attitudes and beh aviour of a representative sample of the British population is availab le to compare with the findings drawn from smaller locally based sampl es. Here the focus is on the factors associated with the performance o f more low-risk health behaviours among mothers of low socio-economic status (social class IV and V), specifically on whether the findings f rom a South Wales survey could be generalised to the equivalent group in a national sample. The outcome measure used was the Health Practice s Index, developed by the Alameda County Researchers. Seventeen factor s were modelled, using multi-way analyses of variance, to produce a fi nal set of statistically independent factors related to health behavio ur. The most striking findings were the importance of the association between type of tenure and health behaviour in both the local and the national sample for this social class group; the lack of any associati on between education and health behaviour in the national sample; the failure, now well recognised, to find statistically independent associ ations between measures of attitudes/beliefs and health behaviour. Fin ally, the implications of the results are discussed in the light of re cent and current trends in health education and promotion.