Health Behaviors and Lifestyles in Old Age in the United States and Japan

描述(由申请者提供)：这项研究旨在研究美国和日本老年健康行为和生活方式的演变。尽管人们对个人健康行为--包括饮酒、吸烟、体育锻炼和体重控制--进行了广泛的研究，但我们目前对这些行为在以后的生活中会发生怎样的变化知之甚少。此外，很少有研究超越对个人健康行为的分析来检查个人内部的多种行为配置(即健康生活方式)。这项研究的具体目的如下：(1)描述个人健康行为在老年期间的变化；(2)描述老年期间各种健康生活方式的流行情况。我们将健康生活方式定义为代表一个人相对于同时测量的各种独立健康行为的状态的多维概况；(3)评估晚年健康行为轨迹和生活方式概况的个体间差异在多大程度上受到关键社会地位指标(例如种族、社会经济地位和性别)和不断变化的心理社会因素(例如个人控制信念、社会资源和压力)的影响；(4)分析健康结果与晚年各种健康行为轨迹和生活方式概况之间的相互关系；(5)比较和对比美国和日本各种晚年健康行为轨迹和生活方式的患病率、决定因素和健康影响。拟议项目的数据来自在美国进行的四项全国性小组调查：健康与退休研究(HRS，ICPSR 6854)、老年人的幸福感：个人控制和自尊(WBA，R01 AG009221)、美国人改变生活研究(ACL，ICPSR 3394)以及年龄、地位和控制感(ASOC，ICPSR 3334)；以及一项全国性的日本老年人小组调查：日本全国老年人调查(NSJE，ICPSR 6842)。这些数据集非常适合这项研究，因为每个数据集都包括对各种健康行为的多年重复观察，它们一起允许在不同文化之间对我们的研究结果进行多重比较和交叉验证。这些研究目标将主要涉及分层线性建模、聚类分析、基于群体的轨迹建模和多项Logit分析。公共卫生相关性：跟踪与年龄相关的健康行为变化可能会揭示有关我们自身行为的动态方面如何影响老年健康的新信息，并有助于我们针对那些特别容易受到健康行为恶化模式影响的老年人进行干预。此外，同时检查多种行为(即生活方式)的概况可以检查多种行为对健康的联合影响，或许可以揭示针对特定生活方式而不是特定行为量身定做干预措施的价值。最后，通过与日本等其他高度发达但文化迥异的国家的老年人进行比较，可以更深入地了解美国老年人的健康行为和生活方式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This study aims to examine how health behaviors and lifestyles evolve during old age in the United States (US) and Japan. Although individual health behaviors - including alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, and weight management - have been widely studied, we currently know little about how these behaviors change in later life. Moreover, few studies have moved beyond the analysis of individual health behaviors to examine configurations of multi-behavior profiles within individuals (i.e., health lifestyles). The proposed research has the following specific aims: (1) To describe how individual health behaviors change during old age; (2) To describe the prevalence of various health lifestyles during old age. We define a health lifestyle as a multidimensional profile representing one's status with respect to various independent health behaviors measured simultaneously; (3) To assess the extent to which interindividual variations in late life health behavior trajectories and lifestyle profiles are patterned by key social status indicators (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender) and changing psychosocial factors (e.g., personal control beliefs, social resources, and stress); (4) To analyze the interrelationships between health outcomes and various health behavior trajectories and lifestyle profiles during late life; (5) To compare and contrast the prevalence, determinants, and health impact of various late life health behavior trajectories and lifestyle profiles in the US and Japan. Data for the proposed project come from four nationwide panel surveys conducted in the United States: the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, ICPSR 6854), Well-Being Among the Aged: Personal Control and Self-Esteem (WBA, R01 AG009221), the Americans' Changing Lives study (ACL, ICPSR 3394), and Aging, Status, and Sense of Control (ASOC, ICPSR 3334); and one nationwide panel survey of Japanese elderly: the National Survey of Japanese Elderly (NSJE, ICPSR 6842). These data sets are ideal for this research because each includes repeated observations, over multiple-year periods, of a wide variety of health behaviors, and together they allow for multiple comparisons and the cross-validation of our research findings between different cultures. These study aims will be addressed primarily with hierarchical linear modeling, cluster analyses, group-based trajectory modeling, and multinomial logit analyses. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Tracking age-related changes in health behaviors may reveal new information about how the dynamic facets of our own behaviors influence health in old age, and could help us in targeting interventions to those elderly who are particularly vulnerable to patterns of worsening health behaviors. Furthermore, examining profiles of multiple behaviors simultaneously (i.e., lifestyles) allows for the examination of the joint effects of multiple behaviors on health, perhaps revealing the value of tailoring interventions to specific lifestyles, rather than specific behaviors. Finally, additional insights into the health behaviors and lifestyles of US elderly can be gained through comparisons with elderly from other highly developed, yet culturally distinct, countries such as Japan.