Demographic and psychosocial components of health behaviour clusters in Canadian military males.

Abstract

This study explored the inter-relationships between health behaviours and their association with demographic and psychosocial measures in a population of Canadian military males. The objectives of this thesis were to determine first, whether health behaviours are independent of each other and if not, second, whether their inter-relationships vary (i) based upon the manner in which the health behaviours are scored; and (ii) between demographic sub-groups. The third objective was to determine whether the association between health behaviour clusters and psychosocial measures varied for different clusters of behaviours. Additional analyses were performed exploring the relationship between health behaviours and health status. While individuals reporting excellent health status performed on average twice as many health behaviours at a positive level compared to those reporting poor health, substantial variability in the relationship was observed. This is a reminder that there are many factors other than personal behaviours which influence health status. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)