Health behaviours and health: evidence that the relationship is not conditional on income adequacy

This study used Canadian data to examine whether the relationships between two health behaviours (physical activity and smoking) and two measures of h ealth (self-perceived health status and number of chronic health conditions ) are conditional on income adequacy. Studies that have investigated the ma nner in which socioeconomic circumstances? such as income adequacy, and hea lth behaviours interact to influence health are few in number and character ized by inconsistent findings. In addition, there is a complete absence of published Canadian research that has explored these relationships. I invest igated the relationship between health behaviours and health by income adeq uacy with a secondary analysis of data from the first cycle of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), conducted by Statistics Canada in 1994-95 . The sample consisted of 11,941 NPHS respondents 20-64 years of age who di d not have an illness or disability that prevented them from being employed . As a whole, findings from a series of hierarchical multiple regression an alyses did not provide adequate evidence to conclude that the effects of ph ysical activity and smoking on self-perceived health status and chronic hea lth conditions are conditional on income adequacy. Instead, findings showed that the health behaviours each had a similar degree of influence on the s elf-perceived health status and number of chronic health conditions of resp ondents at all income adequacy levels. Moreover, the magnitude of the relat ionships between the hearth behaviours and health measures was very small. By enhancing knowledge about both the nature and magnitude of the relations hips among Canadians' income adequacy, health behaviours, and health, this study makes a significant contribution to the small body of research that h as explored the possibility that the relationship between health behaviours and health varies by socioeconomic circumstances. I conclude the paper wit h a discussion of the implications that the findings have for public health policies and programs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.