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A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk

BACKGROUND: This study examines the mortality risk associated with distinct combinations of multiple risk behaviors in middle-aged and older adults, and assesses whether the mortality risks of certain health behaviors are moderated by the presence of other risk behaviors. METHODS: Data for this pros...

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Autores principales: Shaw, Benjamin A, Agahi, Neda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3503621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22989155
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-803
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author Shaw, Benjamin A
Agahi, Neda
author_facet Shaw, Benjamin A
Agahi, Neda
author_sort Shaw, Benjamin A
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This study examines the mortality risk associated with distinct combinations of multiple risk behaviors in middle-aged and older adults, and assesses whether the mortality risks of certain health behaviors are moderated by the presence of other risk behaviors. METHODS: Data for this prospective cohort study are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationwide sample of adults older than 50 years. Baseline data are from respondents (n = 19,662) to the 1998 wave of the HRS. Twelve distinct health behavior profiles were created, based on each respondent’s smoking, physical activity, and alcohol use status in 1998. Mortality risk was estimated through 2008 using Cox regression. RESULTS: Smoking was associated with elevated risk for mortality within all behavioral profiles, but risk was greatest when combined with heavy drinking, both for middle-aged (ages 51–65) and older (ages 66+) adults. Profiles that included physical inactivity were also associated with increased mortality risk in both age groups. However, the impact of inactivity was clearly evident only among non-smokers; among smokers, the risk of inactivity was less evident, and seemingly overshadowed by the risk of smoking. Moderate drinking was protective relative to abstinence among non-smokers, and relative to heavy drinking among smokers. CONCLUSIONS: In both middle-aged and older adults, multiple unhealthy behaviors increase mortality risk. However, the level of risk varies across unique combinations of unhealthy behaviors. These findings highlight the role that lifestyle improvements could play in promoting healthy aging, and provide insight into which behavioral combinations should receive top priority for intervention.
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spelling pubmed-35036212012-11-22 A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk Shaw, Benjamin A Agahi, Neda BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: This study examines the mortality risk associated with distinct combinations of multiple risk behaviors in middle-aged and older adults, and assesses whether the mortality risks of certain health behaviors are moderated by the presence of other risk behaviors. METHODS: Data for this prospective cohort study are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationwide sample of adults older than 50 years. Baseline data are from respondents (n = 19,662) to the 1998 wave of the HRS. Twelve distinct health behavior profiles were created, based on each respondent’s smoking, physical activity, and alcohol use status in 1998. Mortality risk was estimated through 2008 using Cox regression. RESULTS: Smoking was associated with elevated risk for mortality within all behavioral profiles, but risk was greatest when combined with heavy drinking, both for middle-aged (ages 51–65) and older (ages 66+) adults. Profiles that included physical inactivity were also associated with increased mortality risk in both age groups. However, the impact of inactivity was clearly evident only among non-smokers; among smokers, the risk of inactivity was less evident, and seemingly overshadowed by the risk of smoking. Moderate drinking was protective relative to abstinence among non-smokers, and relative to heavy drinking among smokers. CONCLUSIONS: In both middle-aged and older adults, multiple unhealthy behaviors increase mortality risk. However, the level of risk varies across unique combinations of unhealthy behaviors. These findings highlight the role that lifestyle improvements could play in promoting healthy aging, and provide insight into which behavioral combinations should receive top priority for intervention. BioMed Central 2012-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3503621/ /pubmed/22989155 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-803 Text en Copyright ©2012 Shaw and Agahi; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shaw, Benjamin A
Agahi, Neda
A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title_full A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title_fullStr A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title_full_unstemmed A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title_short A prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
title_sort prospective cohort study of health behavior profiles after age 50 and mortality risk
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3503621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22989155
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-803
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