Health Risk Behavior Patterns in a National Adult Population Survey

Abstract

Background: The aim of this paper is to analyze the co-occurrence of health risk behaviors (HRBs), namely, tobacco smoking, alcohol risk drinking, overeating, and physical inactivity, as well as their 16 combinations (patterns), which are stratified by age and gender. Methods: The data of 19,294 study participants, from a telephone survey among the adult general population of Germany that was conducted in 2012, were analyzed. Results: In adults, two or more of the four HBRs were found among 51.5% of females and 61.9% of males. The single most prevalent HRB pattern among all of the female (20.7, 19.6–21.8%) and male participants (18.2, 17.1–19.3%) was being overweight combined with a lack of physical activity, and its prevalence increased by 4% with each year of life. A multinomial regression analysis revealed that education was inversely associated with 11 of the 15 HRB patterns. The risk of having four, compared to zero, HRBs was 3.3 (2.5–4.4) for males relative to females. Conclusion: Similar to the findings from other western countries, the majority of the participants in this adult national sample from Germany had two or more HRBs. The most common of all possible HRB patterns was overweight and inactivity. The data confirm inverse relations between education and most HRB patterns.

Proactive multipurpose health risk screening in health care settings: Methods, design, and reach

“…i Of those who had a period of at least 2 weeks in the last 12 months with sadness, tiredness and/or loss of interest: n = 7,375. (John et al, 2018). In line with previous research (John et al, 2018), nutrition and energy balance associated factors (fruit and vegetable consumption, overweight, and physical inactivity) were the most prevalent health risk cluster.…”

“…In total, 98% of all participants reported at least one health risk factor; thus, nearly all patients could have been approached for an intervention aiming at one or more health risk factors. Further, 83% of patients reported at least two and 51% at least three health risk factors, confirming that the majority of adult population has multiple health risk factors (John et al, ). In line with previous research (John et al, ), nutrition and energy balance associated factors (fruit and vegetable consumption, overweight, and physical inactivity) were the most prevalent health risk cluster.…”

“…Especially when combined with computer‐based counseling systems, which provide an effective and timesaving alternative to face‐to‐face counseling by physicians (Krebs, Prochaska, & Rossi, ; Meyer et al, ), it may ease implementation into routine care. Screening and intervention on multiple health risk factors is highly adequate because the majority of the adult population reports multiple health risk factors (Fine, Philogene, Gramling, Coups, & Sinha, ; John, Hanke, & Freyer‐Adam, ). Clustering of health risk factors places individuals at increased risk due to synergistic negative influences on health and multiplies health care burden as, for example, in case of combined tobacco and alcohol use (Xu et al, ).…”

“…Clustering of health risk factors places individuals at increased risk due to synergistic negative influences on health and multiplies health care burden as, for example, in case of combined tobacco and alcohol use (Xu et al, ). Disparities exist by socio‐economic status: Individuals with low socioeconomic status are more likely to cluster health risks compared with those with higher socioeconomic status (John et al, ; Schuit, van Loon, Tijhuis, & Ocke, ). This is especially concerning as socioeconomic health inequalities have increased over the last years (Ding, Do, Schmidt, & Bauman, ).…”

Feasibility and Acceptability of an Intervention Providing Computer-Generated Tailored Feedback to Target Alcohol Consumption and Depressive Symptoms in Proactively Recruited Health Care Patients and Reactively Recruited Media Volunteers: Results of a Pilot Study

“…The cost-benefit ratio of performing systematic proactive screenings in routine care might be improved if the screenings were expanded to multiple health risk factors for which computer-based interventions are provided in case of positive screening results [51]. Evidence for the adequacy of such an approach is provided by studies showing that the vast majority of the adult population is having at least one health risk factor [52,53] and by studies showing that these can effectively be addressed with intervention approaches like the one described in this study [54].…”