Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109120

Bei Wu, Center on Aging, West Virginia University, P. O. Box 9127, Morgantown, WV 26506, 304-293-5206, bwu@hsc.wvu.edu, Zong-Fu Mao, Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, Wuhan University, 115 Donghu RD., Wuhan, 430071, China, and Juping Hu, Health Department of Hubei Province, 38 Donghu Rd., Wuhan, 430071, China.

China has experienced many political and economic changes over the past several decades. Consequently, it is instructive to examine the age dependent health behaviors. In addition, due to variations in health care, pension policies, state provisions and social experience, characterizing urban and rural age cohort differences is critical in understanding health behaviors in China. The focus of this paper is on different patterns of health behaviors among male and females of different age cohorts in urban and rural areas of China. The data were derived from a large household health survey conducted in 2003, which covered both urban and rural populations in Hubei, China. The study enrolled 16,804 individuals, aged 15 to 101, and examined four health behaviors: cigarette use, alcohol use, physical activity, and actively seeking health-related knowledge. The ANCOVA procedure was used to calculate the adjusted prevalence of each health behavior. Our study findings revealed that unhealthy behaviors occur most frequently among male middle-age (age 40-54) and young-old (age 55-69) cohorts. Although the prevalence of unhealthy behaviors was lower for females than for males, there was a surprising increase in the rate of unhealthy behaviors for females as age increased. In addition, rural respondents had a much lower rate of healthy behaviors. The study suggests that more attention needs to be devoted to promoting healthy behaviors among middle- and old-age groups. A broad agenda for the promotion of healthy behaviors should integrate a focus on gender, socioeconomic status, and social environment.

Learning Objectives:

• To provide prevalence of cigarette use, alcohol use, physical activity and actively seeking health-related knowledge among various groups of populations.
• To have a better understanding of patterns of health behaviors among young and old male and female cohorts in urban and rural areas of China.
• To provide policy and practical implications on promoting healthy behaviors.

Keywords: Aging, Health Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.