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Attitudes and ischaemic heart disease in the Caerphilly Study: the Health Attitude Inventory
J E Gallacher1, J W Yarnell, E S Limb
1MRC Epidemiology Unit, Llandough Hospital, Penarth, South Glamorgan, UK.
Insights
The Health Attitude Inventory (HAI) assesses beliefs and values related to heart disease risk behaviors. These factors significantly predict dietary habits, exercise, and Type A behavior, aiding public health strategies.
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Behavioral Science
- Public Health
Background:
- The Health Attitude Inventory (HAI) is a 76-item questionnaire.
- It assesses attitudes, beliefs, and values related to coronary-related behaviors.
- The HAI is designed for epidemiological studies and takes under 10 minutes to complete.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the Health Attitude Inventory (HAI).
- To assess attitudes, beliefs, and values concerning coronary-related behaviors in epidemiological studies.
- To determine the association between attitudes and coronary risk behaviors.
Main Methods:
- The HAI was administered to 2100 men aged 50-64.
- Coronary-related behaviors measured included smoking, exercise, Type A behavior, and dietary habits.
- Statistical analyses included linear and logistic regression.
Main Results:
- Attitudes, beliefs, and values explained 8-27% of the variance in dietary behaviors.
- They explained 13% of the variance in exercise and 18% in Type A behavior.
- Predictive concordance for smoking status was 95%.
Conclusions:
- The HAI effectively assesses attitudes, beliefs, and values in epidemiological settings.
- These factors show significant associations with various coronary risk behaviors.
- Findings support public health applications for identifying influential factors to promote healthy behaviors.
Background:
The Health Attitude Inventory (HAI) is developed to assess attitudes, beliefs and values towards coronary-related behaviour in epidemiological studies. It comprises a 76-item self-administered questionnaire which can be completed in under 10 minutes by most adults.
Methods:
The HAI was administered to 2100 men aged 50-64 years along with measures of ischaemic heart disease risk factors, including the following coronary-related behaviours: smoking, exercise, type A behaviour and the consumption of fried food, dairy produce, wholemeal bread and vegetables.
Results:
Cross-sectional analyses using linear regression showed attitudes, beliefs and values to explain between 8% and 27% of the variance in the dietary coronary-related behaviour. For exercise 13% of the variance was explained, and for type A behaviour 18%. Similar analysis for smoking using logistic regression (non-smoker versus current smoker) showed a predictive concordance of 95%.
Conclusions:
The HAI has demonstrated the assessment of attitudes, beliefs and values in an epidemiological setting to show associations with a range of coronary risk behaviours. This finding has potential public health as well as aetiological application in that influential attitudes, values and beliefs can be identified to aid increasing healthy as well as reducing risky coronary-related behaviour.