IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v33y1991i8p925-936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The European health and behaviour survey: Rationale, methods and initial results from the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Wardle, Jane
  • Steptoe, Andrew

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess a wide range of health-related behaviours, beliefs concerning the importance of behaviours for health, and health knowledge, using a standardized protocol suitable for translation and administration in different countries of Europe. An inventory was developed from previous literature for the assessment of substance use, positive health practices, diet and eating habits, driving behaviour and preventive health care, beliefs concerning the importance of 25 activities for health, and knowledge about the influence of seven factors (including smoking, alcohol and diet) on major diseases. The first phase of the study involved administration of the inventory to approximately 200 male and 200 female university students aged 18-30 in 20 European countries. This report concerns data collected from 419 students in the U.K., together with analyses of short-term response stability. The inventory showed adequate short-term stability. Sex differences were observed in a number of behaviours, including consumption of fats and cholesterol, salt and fibre, dieting, exercise, sun-protection, driving speed, regular dental check-ups, frequency of brushing teeth, access to doctor and blood pressure measurement. Beliefs about the importance of behaviours for health were closely associated with the occurrence or frequency of the behaviours both within and between health behaviour categories. Little relationship was observed between health behaviour and awareness of the role of these same factors in disease. Important gaps in health knowledge were identified. Data concerning the frequency of health-related behaviours is crucial to the planning of health education and primary prevention programmes. The close association between beliefs and behaviour emphasises the importance of cognitive factors, while health knowledge appears to play a less direct role.

Suggested Citation

  • Wardle, Jane & Steptoe, Andrew, 1991. "The European health and behaviour survey: Rationale, methods and initial results from the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 925-936, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:33:y:1991:i:8:p:925-936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(91)90263-C
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karl Peltzer & Supa Pengpid, 2017. "Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, Body Mass Index, and Waist Circumference among Young Adults from 24 Low- and Middle-Income and Two High-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, May.
    2. Junaidi Budi Prihanto & Endang Sri Wahjuni & Faridha Nurhayati & Ryota Matsuyama & Miwako Tsunematsu & Masayuki Kakehashi, 2021. "Health Literacy, Health Behaviors, and Body Mass Index Impacts on Quality of Life: Cross-Sectional Study of University Students in Surabaya, Indonesia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Nudelman, Gabriel & Shiloh, Shoshana, 2015. "Mapping health behaviors: Constructing and validating a common-sense taxonomy of health behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-10.
    4. Karl Peltzer & Supa Pengpid & Tony K. C. Yung & Hajer Aounallah‐Skhiri & Rehana Rehman, 2016. "Comparison of health risk behavior, awareness, and health benefit beliefs of health science and non‐health science students: An international study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 180-187, June.
    5. Walid El Ansari & Christiane Stock, 2010. "Is the Health and Wellbeing of University Students Associated with their Academic Performance? Cross Sectional Findings from the United Kingdom," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Karl Peltzer & Supa Pengpid, 2014. "Oral Health Behaviour and Social and Health Factors in University Students from 26 Low, Middle and High Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, November.
    7. Supa Pengpid & Karl Peltzer & Hemant Kassean & Jacques Tsala Tsala & Vanphanom Sychareun & Falk Müller-Riemenschneider, 2015. "Physical inactivity and associated factors among university students in 23 low-, middle- and high-income countries," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(5), pages 539-549, July.
    8. Supa Pengpid & Karl Peltzer, 2019. "Sedentary Behaviour, Physical Activity and Life Satisfaction, Happiness and Perceived Health Status in University Students from 24 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-7, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:33:y:1991:i:8:p:925-936. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.