Associations between age, executive function, health literacy, values and health behaviour of men during emerging and young adulthood /
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(Published version)
Date
2012
Authors
Rudnik, Elena M.,
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thesis
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Abstract
Background: Health behaviour models guide clinical practice but current models may not adequately explain the health behaviour of males through transition to adulthood (Renner, et al., 2007). Emerging adulthood is a developmental stage between the late teens and early twenties (Arnett, 2001) and young adulthood has been defined as extending to the age of 39 years (Roberts, Walton, & Bogg, 2005). Little research has examined the health behaviours of men at this stage of life. Individual behaviour, including binge drinking and unsafe driving of young people have been shown to be associated with age, gender and socioeconomic status (SES) (de Visser, Rissel, Smith, & Richters, 2006) ; however , it is likely that executive functions (EF) (Hall et al., 2008) and Health Literacy (HL) (von Wagner, Steptoe, Wolf, & Wardle, 2009) and values may be influential determinants of their behaviour (Steptoe et al., 1994) .
Aims: This research aimed to identify the major cross-sectional correlates of male health behaviour during emerging adulthood.
Method: Two studies were conducted. Study one involved the analyses of health status, health behaviour and SES data collected using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) from a randomly selected sample of 5262 South Australian men aged between 16 and 44 years. Study two involved a sample of 102 men aged between 16 and 40 years who were recruited in regional South Australia. Data on alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, oral hygiene, fruit and vegetable consumption, drug use, body composition, sleep, driver safety and help seeking were collected by questionnaire. EF was measured by the Zoo Map Test, Self Ordered Pointing Test, Tower Test, Stroop Colour Word Test, Trail-Maker Test, Letter Cancellation Task and Initial Letter Fluency Task. Behaviour values were measured using a Likert scale rating of importance and HL was measured by the Newest Vital Signs (NVS), Shortened Test of Functional Health Literacy for Adults (S-TOFHLA) and five critical health literacy questions (Ishikawa & Yano, 2008). In both study one and study two analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) and logistic regression were used to test associations between age group (16–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–40), health status and health behaviour. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was used in study two to test associations between EF, HL and health behaviour values with composite health behaviour scores and adjusted for education and income as covariates.
Results: In study one there was a small, although significant effect of age on health behaviour score F (4, 3202) = 3.85, p < . 01. The direction of effect was unexpected, with health behaviour scores lower for the older age groups, indicating less protective and more risk- taking behaviours. In both study one and two age accounted for a non-significant increment over the base model (education and income) in predicted variance in health behaviour. Inclusion of health behaviour values in study two accounted for 25% of variance with all combined variables accounting for 34% of variance in health behaviour (β = .53, r 2 = .34, R 2 change = .25, p < . 05). HL and EF were not related to behaviour scores, although 12.9% of the sample was identified as having limited functional health literacy.
Conclusions: In males navigating the transition to adulthood, those who place greater value on health behaviour had higher composite health behaviour scores, after adjusting for socioeconomic covariates. Unexpected ly , EFs and HL were found not to have a relationship with the health behaviour of young adult men. This finding reiterates the usefulness of engaging men and collecting information relating to health behaviour values as an initial screening of health behaviour. Further research is needed to investigate the development of health behaviour values of young adult men. This research has provided evidence that age during emerging adulthood is not clearly associated with health behaviour, and that all men, not just the younger men, should be supported to value their behaviours that are linked to positive and negative health outcomes.
School/Discipline
University of South Australia. School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy.
School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy.
School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy.
Dissertation Note
Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2013.
Provenance
Copyright 2012 Elena M. Rudnik. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Australia 3.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/)
Description
1 ethesis (xxii, 407 pages) :
illustrations (some colour)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-369)
illustrations (some colour)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-369)
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