Health Behaviors and Health Status among Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Chronic Diseases in Taiwan

Wei-Hua Tian and Joseph J. Tien
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Wei-Hua Tian: Department of Economics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Joseph J. Tien: Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Tamkang University, New Taipei City 251, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Changes in lifestyle behaviors may effectively maintain or improve the health status of individuals with chronic diseases. However, such health behaviors adopted by individuals are unlikely to demonstrate similar patterns. This study analyzed the relationship between the heterogeneous latent classes of health behavior and health statuses among middle-aged and older adults with hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia in Taiwan. After selecting 2103 individuals from the 2005 and 2009 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we first identified heterogeneous groups of health behaviors through latent class analysis (LCA). We further explored the relationship between each latent class of health behavior and health status through ordered logit regression. We identified the following five distinct health behavior classes: the all-controlled, exercise and relaxation, healthy diet and reduced smoking or drinking, healthy diet, and least-controlled classes. Regression results indicated that individuals in classes other than the all-controlled class all reported poor health statuses. We also found great magnitude of the coefficient estimates for individuals who reported their health status to be poor or very poor for the least-controlled class. Therefore, health authorities and medical providers may develop targeted policies and interventions that address multiple modifiable health behaviors in each distinct latent class of health behavior.

Keywords: health behavior; health status; latent class analysis; middle-aged and older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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