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Patterns of health risk behaviors among job-seekers: a latent class analysis
Inga Schnuerer1, Sophie Baumann, Katja Haberecht
1Institute of Social Medicine and Prevention, University Medicine Greifswald, Walther-Rathenau-Str. 48, 17475, Greifswald, Germany, inga.schnuerer@gmx.ch.
Objectives:
To examine the patterning of four behavior-related health risk factors (tobacco smoking, risky alcohol drinking, overweight, and physical inactivity) among job-seekers and to investigate socio-demographic and health-related predictors of patterning.
Methods:
The sample of 3,684 female and 4,221 male job-seekers was proactively recruited at three job agencies in northeastern Germany in 2008/09. Participants provided data on socio-demographics, substance use, body mass index, physical activity and self-rated health. Latent class analyses (LCA) and multinomial logistic regression analyses were applied to identify health risk patterns and possible predictors of patterning, respectively.
Results:
Forty-three percent of the female and 58% of the male participants had two or more health risk factors. LCA revealed three similar patterns for women and men: Substance use (tobacco smoking, risky drinking), Non-exercising overweight (physical inactivity, overweight/obesity) and Health-conscious (non-smoking, low-risk drinking, under-/normal weight, physical activity). Age, education, marital status, life-time unemployment and self-rated health were significantly associated with patterning in both genders.
Conclusions:
Our results may help to define target populations for improving health behaviors among job-seekers.
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