Health practices and health status: evidence from the Canada Health Survey

Data from the Canada Health Survey were analyzed for the interrelationships of health practices and for the association of health practices with health status. Moderate alcohol use, not smoking, and seat belt use formed a cluster representing passive avoidance of direct risks; exercise and immunization made up another component, identified as active avoidance of abstract risks. These six practices clustered in the same fashion for both sexes; but for women, there was an additional factor, the avoidance of sex-specific risks. Separate health practice indices were created for men and women based on these behaviors. Index scores were shown to be significantly associated with four measures of health status. The association was particularly strong for the two indicators of emotional health for both sexes and for all four indicators for women. This study confirms the conclusions of earlier reports based on regional or highly selected samples and extends them to emotional health status; it is the first study to publish comprehensive data on this question from a sample survey representative of an entire national population.