THE STABILITY OF LIFE-STYLE BEHAVIOR

Background The stability of Lifestyle behaviour has been studied over a 4-year period in a sample of 1400 men in The Netherlands. The influe nce of both socioeconomic status and age was studied in relation to li festyle behaviour change. Methods Lifestyle behaviour was analysed by means of index scores, each covering one of four domains: smoking, alc ohol consumption, physical activity and dietary habits. Changes in lif estyle behaviour were analysed at individual and group level, using di fferent statistical methods. Results Smoking behaviour remained highly constant, whereas alcohol consumption had only moderate stability. Ph ysical activity and dietary habits had greater variability over this t ime period. Age and socioeconomic status are related to the prevalence of lifestyle behaviour, whereas only age is related to the stability of lifestyle behaviour. Socioeconomic status did not relate to changes in lifestyle behaviour. Conclusions The four lifestyle behaviours dif fered in the degree of variation over a 4-year period. Only a small gr oup (11%) changed two or more lifestyle behaviours. This implies that lifestyle behaviour is not a unified concept and should not be treated in that way in public health campaigns.