Environment, Self-Regulation, and Health Behavior in Older Adults

Changing the environmental context of health behavior is a priority in industrialized countries, where the built environment (BE) can 1) make healthy behavior difficult to perform and/or 2) emphasize short-term benefits of unhealthy behaviors over long-term benefits of healthy ones. Recent theory hypothesizes that in such environments, individuals must exercise greater self-regulation to make good long-term choices. This may be especially important in older populations, as aging is associated with less mobility—increasing the importance of neighborhood environment—and lower cognitive and self-regulatory resources.

This research uses behavioral, environmental, and cognitive data from 976 older adults in the Baltimore Memory Study (2001-2003) to examine the association of BE and self-regulation resources with health behavior among older adults. Mean age of participants was 60.7 years; 66% were female, 41% were African-American, and 55% were white. Preliminary analyses estimate that 16% of participants had a good diet according to Healthy Eating Index guidelines, 19% were current smokers, 73% were non/moderate drinkers, and 38% participated in brisk walking ≥1.5 hours/week. Higher levels of executive function (EF), a self-regulation proxy, were associated with healthier behavior (p<0.001) for all behaviors except brisk walking; those with higher EF were less likely to participate in brisk walking (p<0.001).

We will present findings from an analysis of respondent neighborhoods and multilevel modeling of the BE/EF interaction on health behaviors to investigate whether greater self-regulation resources are associated with healthier behavior in unsupportive environments. Findings may inform efforts to better structure environments to facilitate healthy choices for older adults.