New lives for old: lifestyle change initiatives among older adults

In order to examine seniors' efforts to change their health practices, nearly all (N = 198) of the senior citizens who reside in the small rural town of Willsboro, New York were interviewed. Subjects were asked to describe their health change efforts of the prior year. Subjects also rated the success of a principal lifestyle change effort. The vast majority of these seniors (83%) reported having attempted one or more lifestyle change efforts. It was determined that a little less than one half (45%) of the key lifestyle changes were sustained for 6 months or more. The impact of social environment was assessed through measures of perceived social support and perceived health-related social norms. Self-report measures of health behavior, depression, memory loss, activity limitations, and socioeconomic status served as controls. Two structural equation models determined that social norms are related to both the number of lifestyle change attempts and to lifestyle change success. An interaction between norms help to determine whether social support is positively or negatively related to the number of lifestyle change attempts.