Health Conception and Health Promotion in Blue Collar Workers: Program Planning Issues

Abstract

Health conception and health promotion behaviors were measured in 160 blue collar workers ages 18 to 65, focusing on factors influencing blue collar workers' participation in health promotion programs. Results of LatTrey's Health Conception Scale (LHCS) and Pender's Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) indicated: • Health responsibility and interpersonal support were significantly greater for women than for men. • Exercise was significantly greater for younger workers than for older workers. • Nutrition was significantly greater for older workers than for younger workers. • Health conception was significantly greater for younger women and for older men. • A significant relationship exists between health conception and health promoting lifestyle.

A comparative study of health-promoting lifestyles in agricultural and non-agricultural workers in Japan

“…In terms of gender, it was reported that females showed more healthprotective behaviors. Bagwell and Bush [11] noted that females scored significantly higher than males in health responsibility and interpersonal relations. Furthermore, many studies have suggested that the frequency and intensity of the performance of good health behavior varied between males and females.…”

“…In terms of age, some studies reported that older age groups tended to have healthier lifestyles than younger age groups [11,15,16]. In terms of gender, many studies suggested that the frequency and intensity of performance of healthy behaviors were better in females than in males [17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…The HPLP-II is an upgraded version of the HPLP, which has been used extensively in health promotion research [8] and has been reported to have sufficient validity and reliability by various studies that explored the determinants and actual state of a health-promoting lifestyle [9][10][11][12]. In Japan, the Japanese version of the HPLP-II was developed by Wei et al [13], and has been used by many researchers [14].…”

Conceptions of health: A cross-cultural comparison.

“…With respect to health-promoting strategies, a study conducted with blue-collar workers showed that women relied more on interpersonal support to promote their health in comparison to men (Bagwell & Bush, 1999). This study also indicated that women believed they were responsible for the health of their close ones to a greater extent than men.…”

“…Other researchers observed no differences in the health conceptions of men and women (Bagwell & Bush, 1999;Buck & Ryan-Wenger, 2003;DeSantis, 1993).…”