Factors associated with health behaviour among mothers of lower socio-economic status: a British example.

The Health and Lifestyle Survey is the first survey in the U.K. to compare with the databases available in North America. For the first time detailed information on the health status, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of a representative sample of the British population is available to compare with the findings drawn from smaller locally based samples. Here the focus is on the factors associated with the performance of more low-risk health behaviours among mothers of low socio-economic status (social class IV and V), specifically on whether the findings from a South Wales survey could be generalised to the equivalent group in a national sample. The outcome measure used was the Health Practices Index, developed by the Alameda County Researchers. Seventeen factors were modelled, using multi-way analyses of variance, to produce a final set of statistically independent factors related to health behaviour. The most striking findings were the importance of the association between type of tenure and health behaviour in both the local and the national sample for this social class group; the lack of any association between education and health behaviour in the national sample; the failure, now well recognised, to find statistically independent associations between measures of attitudes/beliefs and health behaviour. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed in the light of recent and current trends in health education and promotion.