MULTIVARIATE EVALUATION OF HEALTH ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS - DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A METHOD FOR HEALTH PROMOTION RESEARCH

Many self-reported measures of health status, attitudes and knowledge used by clinicians and researchers suffer from a variety of shortcomings, including limited empirical justification, excessive complexity, assessments of nonmodifiable historic or hereditary factors, and limited utility for public health program planning. The Health Attitudes and Behavior Scale is an instrument designed to overcome many of these shortcomings and direct public health professionals toward more efficacious interventions. One hundred sixty-four subjects responded to true-false and Likert scale items related to health beliefs, attitudes and behavioral practices. A principal component analysis of the Likert items yielded 6 components, tentatively labeled Lake of Social Support, Hurdles to Health, Health Attitudes/Weight Concerns, Positive Environment, Disease Concerns, and Time and Work/Pressure. Analyses of these scales using coefficient alpha indicated adequate internal consistency for each of them. These scales were then related to demographic variables of age, educational level, sex and marital status. These scales were correlated with individual true-false itemns reflecting self-reported behavioral practices or health histories. A component analysis of the true-false items yielded 4 principal components labeled Organizational Health Concerns, Smoking and Exercise Concerns, Coronary and Weight Concerns, and Blood Pressure and Risk Factor Programs. A cluster analysis yielded 6 typical profiles reflecting different levels of the original 6 components. The Lack of Social Support and Time and Work Pressure scales had a very limited integration into the overall patterns. Apparently, organizational and environmental factors can have an important impact on health. The need for further research in this area is also discussed.