[The income level and life styles: towards a law of inverse prevention?]

The study of the determinants of disease-related lifestyles may be relevant for better understanding the potential of health policies. In the present work, results of the analysis of the Elche Healthy Cities Interview Survey prevalence of some disease related lifestyles (physical activity level, cigarette consumption, and alcohol intake) are presented according to economic level as measured by monthly family income, 573 people randomly selected from the town rolls were interviewed at home. No associations were found between economic level and alcohol intake or present smoking status. But, trying to stop smoking and regular exercise were more frequent behaviors in higher economic groups. The ratio of prevalence of regular exercise was 1.73 in favor of the highest economic levels. The gradient found was statistically significant (chi 2 for trend = 17.4, p less than 0.01). The results may be of relevance when implementing health policies to overcome inequalities in health: "unequal interventions" may be more adequate.