Patterns of multiple lifestyle risk factors and their link to mental health in the German adult population: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectivesLifestyle risk factors, such as drinking or unhealthy diet, can expotentiate detrimental health effects. Therefore, it is important to investigate multiple lifestyle risk factors instead of single ones. The study aims at: (1) identifying patterns of lifestyle risk factors within the adult general population in Germany and (2) examining associations between the extracted patterns and external factors.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingGeneral German adult population (aged 18–64 years).ParticipantsParticipants of the 2015 Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (n=9204).Primary outcome measuresLifestyle risk factors (daily smoking, at-risk alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, low physical activity, weekly use of pharmaceuticals, as well as consumption of cannabis and other illicit drugs).ResultsA latent class analysis was applied to identify patterns of lifestyle risk factors, and a multinomial logistic regression was carried out to examine associations between the extracted classes and external factors. A total of four classes were extracted which can be described as healthy lifestyle (58.5%), drinking lifestyle (24.4%), smoking lifestyle (15.4%) and a cumulate risk factors lifestyle (1.7%). Individuals who were male, at younger age and single as well as individuals with various mental health problems were more likely to show multiple lifestyle risk factors.ConclusionsHealthcare professionals should be aware of correlations between different lifestyle risk factors as well as between lifestyle risk groups and mental health. Health promotion strategies should further focus especially on younger and single men.

Clustering of multiple health risk behaviors and its association with diabetes in a Southern Chinese adult population: a cross-sectional study

“…Specifically, individuals in the ''cumulate harmful habits'' group reported the highest prevalence of certain behaviors concurrently. This is coherent with the previous literature (Atzendorf et al, 2018;Kino, Bernabe & Sabbah, 2017;Noble et al, 2015), suggesting that there may be a common underlying cause of HRBs. Additionally, we also observed an association between sleep problems and risky behaviors.…”

“…The results reinforce the idea that health behaviors tend to cluster at the upper and lower ends of the spectrum (Noble et al, 2015). However, both current and previous findings revealed that even individuals in the ''healthy'' class exhibited low physical activity (Atzendorf et al, 2018;De Mello et al, 2019). It reflects the difficulties for general adults in self-regulatory behaviors like physical activity, and highlights the need to increase health services concerning health-promoting behaviors.…”

“…This is consistent with previous literatures from other countries. In a study of German adults (Atzendorf et al, 2018), 58.5% of the population belonged to a subgroup with near-zero probabilities for most of the lifestyle risk factors. Another study conducted in 27 European countries showed that 57.65% of adults were classified as healthy with respect to smoking, alcohol and fresh fruit consumption, physical activity, and dental check-ups (Kino, Bernabe & Sabbah, 2017).…”

Multiple lifestyle factors and depressed mood: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the UK Biobank (N = 84,860)

“…In recent years, some research has assessed how a range of lifestyle factors may influence our mental wellbeing, with several cross-sectional studies, for example [20][21][22][23] revealing that other elements such as a healthy diet, adequate duration of sleep, outdoor or sunlight exposure, alcohol limitation, and smoking avoidance are beneficial behaviours which relate to general mental health and mood. This data is compelling and stands to reason due to the well-documented effects that nutrition, sleep, physical activity, sunlight and air quality, and harmful recreational substances (i.e.…”

Looking at Intergenerational Risk Factors in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: New Frontiers for Early Vulnerability Identification?

“…Within the early intervention paradigm in psychiatry (72), special attention is paid to modifiable risk factors (73,74), i.e., factors that can be manipulated by early specific and preventive interventions moderating their longitudinal role in contributing to the risk of psychosis and schizophrenia (75). With respect to intergenerational liability, one of the most important modifiable risk factors includes parenting, whose quality is strongly correlated with severity and chronicity of mother mental illness (76,77), including SSD (78)(79)(80)(81).…”