title: Educational attainment and the clustering of health-related behavior among U.S. young adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We documented health-related behavior clustering among US young adults and assessed the extent to which educational attainment was associated with the identified clusters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we performed latent class analysis on 8 health-related behaviors (n=14,338), documenting clustering of behavior separately by gender. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression and estimated associations between educational attainment and the health-related behavior clusters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-eight percent of young women grouped into the most favorable health behavior cluster, while 22% grouped into a very high-risk cluster. A larger percentage of young men (40%) grouped into the highest risk cluster. Individuals with educational attainment at the college and advanced degree levels exhibited much lower risk of being in the unhealthy behavioral clusters than individuals with lower educational attainment, net of a range of confounders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Substantial fractions of US young adults, particularly those with less than college degrees, exhibit unhealthy behavior profiles. Efforts to improve health among young adults should focus particular attention on the clustering of poor health-related behavior, especially among individuals who have less than a college degree.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin, Population Research Center, 305 East 23rd Street, G1800, Austin, TX 78712-1699, USA. Electronic address: julie.skalamera@utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skalamera
authors.affiliation: Carolina Population Center and Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 206 W. Franklin Street, Room 208, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hummer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Behavior clusters; Educational attainment; Health-related behavior