Health, healthy lifestyles and health examinations among the older people in Taiwan.

AIM: This aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the utilisation of general health examinations and health and a healthy lifestyle. METHODS: The data were from a 5-wave panel of older Taiwanese people. Health was defined as the absence of chronic diseases and physical function difficulties. A healthy lifestyle included no smoking, no alcohol consumption and engaging in regular exercise. Generalised linear modelling was applied. RESULTS: The individuals with more chronic diseases were more likely to undergo health examinations, but the rate of change declined over time. Having more physical function disabilities may reduce the likelihood of undergoing health examinations. Individuals who engaged in regular exercise were more likely to undergo health examinations. CONCLUSION: Health examination utilisation is related to health and healthy lifestyle among older people.

Trajectories of physical activity and risk factors among Taiwanese older adults.

BACKGROUND: The significance of physical activity has been noticed. However, the dynamic change and the heterogeneity of physical activity patterns among older people are little explored. PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify the trajectory patterns of engaging in physical activity over time and its related factors. METHOD: Nationally representative four-wave panel data from Taiwanese older adults, gathered between 1996 and 2007, were used (n = 4,018). The participants ranged in age from 50 to 96 years old. "Being physically active" was defined as performing physical activity in sports or exercises at least three times per week and lasting for at least 30 min each time. Group-based trajectory analysis was performed for analyzing the data. RESULTS: Four trajectory patterns were identified: inactive (47.83%), decreasing (12.21%), increasing (23.36%), and active (16.60%). Older respondents and those with more education were more likely to be active. Those respondents having more depressive symptoms, having more physical functional limitations, and having jobs were less likely to be physically active in the decreasing, increasing, and active patterns. CONCLUSION: There is heterogeneity among the trajectory patterns of physical activity across time in the older adults. Different strategies of physical activity promotion for the older people should be developed by the group characteristics.

Effects of health literacy to self-efficacy and preventive care utilization among older adults.

AIM: This study examined the relationships between health literacy, self-efficacy and preventive care utilization among older adults in Taiwan. METHODS: The data were from a longitudinal survey, "Taiwan Longitudinal Study in Aging" in 2003 and 2007. A total of 3479 participants who completed both two waves were included for analysis. Health literacy first was constructed through education, cognitive function and disease knowledge through structural equation modeling (SEM); then, the associations of health literacy to later self-efficacy and preventive care were examined. RESULTS: The model fit of SEM was good, indicating that the construct of health literacy was appropriate. Healthy literacy showed a moderate positive effect on self-efficacy and a small positive effect on preventive care utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Health literacy increases self-efficacy and utilization of preventive care. Promoting people's health knowledge and health literacy is suggested.

Joint trajectories of multiple health-related behaviors among the elderly.

OBJECTIVES: The main goal of this study was to identify the multiple trajectories of the following four health behaviors among the elderly by gender: smoking, drinking alcohol, getting regular exercise, and having a health checkup METHODS: Data were from a longitudinal survey conducted among the elderly from 1996 to 2007 in Taiwan. In total, 5,880 respondents were included in the analysis RESULTS: The trajectories of health-related behaviors differed between males and females. Five groups of male elderly were identified: smoking, inactive, healthy lifestyle, smoking and drinking, and quitting. Three groups of female elderly were identified: smoking and drinking, inactive, and healthy lifestyle. Age, education, self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and economic satisfaction at baseline were associated with the health behavior trajectories CONCLUSION: The nature of healthy behaviors and risky behaviors may differ. Thus, multiple trajectories can exhibit patterns that differ from those of single behavior trajectories. Strategies designed to promote health need to consider both gender and behavior patterns which may change over time.

Aggregation of health behaviors among fourth graders in northern Taiwan.

PURPOSE: To investigate the aggregation of health behaviors among fourth graders in northern Taiwan. METHODS: This study conducted an analysis of data collected from the 2001 Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) project, which included a sample of 2075 fourth grade students. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to investigate the aggregation patterns. RESULTS: After factor analysis, we found that the 18 health behaviors could be grouped under five factors. These five factors were named: healthy behavior, rule-breaking behavior, substance use behavior, violent behavior, and pleasure-seeking behavior, according to the characteristics of the various health behaviors grouped under each of them. Each study subject was assigned points for each of these five factors and then cluster analysis was used to divide the subjects into four different clusters. The names of these clusters and the percentage of subjects within them were as follows: healthy group (43.47%), violent group (29.11%), pleasure-seeking group (22.55%), and rebellious group (4.87%). CONCLUSIONS: A total of 56.53% of the study sample were grouped under unhealthy groups (violent group, pleasure-seeking group and rebellious group), which indicates that already more than half of the students had lifestyles that put their health at risk. It was suggested that health and educational organizations need to place importance on behavioral problems in children and adopt early prevention measures.