title: Health status and health practices--Alameda and beyond.
abstract: Using the population of St John's, Newfoundland, we did a constructive replication of previous studies testing the association between health practices and health status. A telephone questionnaire was applied to all adults in a probabilistic sample of households (3300 subjects, 85% response rate). Several health practices and preventive behaviours indexes were developed and tested. An additive index of six practices (breakfast, sleeping, drinking, smoking, weight and exercise) using the Alameda County definitions, and an additive score of five practices (excluding breakfast and with revised definitions for smoking, drinking and exercise) were analysed using log-linear models; there was association between the indexes and self-assessed health status when controlling for sex, age and education, with the exception of the six-practice index in males. The association between these two indexes and several variables and constructs of health status showed that the best relationships were with self-assessed health status and with a construct including variables measuring subjective health.
authors.affiliation: Division of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Segovia
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Bartlett
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Edwards
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001519:Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009523:Newfoundland and Labrador; D012647:Self-Assessment