HEALTH-PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOR - EXPLORATORY-STUDY

This exploratory research introduces the concept of Health-Protective Behavior (HPB), describes the activities that people perform to protect their health, identifies clusters of HPB, and examines the relation of selected Health Belief Model variables to HPB clusters. Data from interviews with 842 randomly selected adults indicate that: virtually everyone performs some HPB activities, the most commonly performed activities do not involve use of the health care system, several clusters of HPB emerge when the data are subjected to cluster analysis. HPB does not differ markedly by health condition of the respondents, and some Health Belief Model variables are moderately associated with the performance of activities within selected HPB clusters. These findings are compatible with a view of individuals as 'producers' of health rather than simply consumers of health care.