| The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of health behaviors. Such development was explored in the context of health status and age/cohort group membership. The first concern of this investigation was to explore the measurement of health behaviors. Second, the following questions were investigated: (1) Do health behaviors change? (2) Does health behavior change vary by age/cohort group? (3) Does health status affect health behavior change? And (4) does the magnitude of health behavior change affect mortality outcomes?;Q-sort results indicated that health behavior was best assessed separately by health behavior domain (e.g. smoking abstention, alcohol moderation, food consumption, food preparation, physical activity, seat belt use, dental care, and medical care) and by health behavior criteria (e.g. cardiovascular disease, disability). Frequencies of change indicated that smoking abstention, cardiovascular criteria and seat belt use remained stable while smoking abstention, disability criteria, alcohol moderation food consumption, food preparation, physical activity, dental, and medical care showed some change. Change in health behaviors over time differed by age/cohort group and health status for food consumption, food preparation, and medical care. Logistic Regression results indicated that while magnitude of health behavior change did not predict mortality, higher levels of physical activity decreased the likelihood of mortality.;Using health belief and life course perspectives was effective in examining health behavior change for individuals across the lifespan. The results indicated that while it is important to examine health behavior change in the context of age/cohort groups and health status, it is also important to isolate the phenomenon of change to specific health behavior domains, because assumptions about health behavior change could not be generalized to all health behavior domains.;Future health behavior interventions need to focus on the old-old and individuals with physical disability. Both the old-old and physical disability individuals did not commonly display positive health behavior change. The health behavior literature indicates that it is never too late to positively alter health behaviors to produce a higher quality of life. Therefore these specific populations need to be targeted to promote positive health behavior change, to limit future onsets of further disability, morbidity, and even premature death. Future work can explore health behaviors change with respect to other health conditions (i.e. diabetes, depression, cognitive impairment, osteoporosis, liver disease, obesity, cancer) and in alternative samples to examine the generalizability of the current findings.;The findings did not indicate that positive health behavior change prevents premature mortality. However, a follow-up analysis did indicate a positive relationship between high physical activity levels and survivorship. To prevent premature mortality it may be salient to merely maintain a high level of physical activity rather than initiating positive health behavior change. Therefore, interventions may need to focus on changing poor health behaviors; rather than minimally having the objective of inducing some positive change across several health behaviors. Thus, while there was weak support for positive health behavior changes increasing survivorship, possibly when incorporating other outcomes (disease, disability) positive health behavior change could be seen to decrease the prevalence of disease and/or disability. |
