Associations between healthy lifestyles and health outcomes among older Koreans

Healthy lifestyles have been found to be positively associated with physical and mental health outcomes in later life. Although multiple health behaviors have the potential to enhance health among older adults, little is known about a multiple behavior approach. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between multiple healthy lifestyles and health outcomes among Korean older adults.

The study sample consisted of 3844 Korean older adults aged 65 years and older from a cross-section sample being followed in the nationally representative dataset, the 2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Healthy lifestyles included non-smoking, normal drinking, physical activity and normal weight. Adjusting for covariates (age, sex, marital status, education, household income and having chronic condition), a multivariate logistic regression was carried out to examine self-rated health, disability, cognitive impairment and depression as four individual health outcomes.

Compared with respondents with no healthy lifestyle factors, respondents with at least one healthy lifestyle factor had better self-rated health, respondents with at least two healthy lifestyle factors had reduced risk of disability, and respondents with at least three healthy lifestyle factors had reduced risk of cognitive impairment. Interestingly, having just two or three healthy lifestyle factor was associated with reduced risk of depression.

These results suggest that older Koreans with more healthy lifestyles are healthier than those with less healthy lifestyles. Also, the association between multiple healthy lifestyle factors and health outcomes is different by specific health outcome, showing different mechanisms between multiple healthy lifestyle factors and each health outcome. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2015; ●●: ●●-●●.