Health-promoting life styles of older adults: comparisons with young and middle-aged adults, correlates and patterns.

The purposes of the study presented were to compare the health-promoting behaviors of older adults with those of young and middle-aged adults, to examine the relationship of age and other sociodemographic characteristics to life style throughout adulthood, and to identify differing life-style patterns among older adults. Six dimensions of life style were measured by the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile in 452 adults aged 18 to 88. Older adults had higher scores in overall health-promoting life style and in the dimensions of health responsibility, nutrition, and stress management than both young and middle-aged adults. Sociodemographic variables accounted for only 13.4% of the variance in life style and for 5.2% to 18.6% in its six dimensions. Five major health-promoting life-style patterns were identified among older adults, depicting a heterogeneous group with varying needs for health promotion programming.