Health-related Behavior over the Course of Life in the Czech Republic

AbstractThis study presents partial results of an extensive research project (Grant Agency n. 13-19808S). The aim is to map health-related behaviour over the course of life in the Czech Republic and to examine how four age groups (20 – 35, 36-50, 51 – 65, 65 and older) differ in components of their health-related behaviour. The research sample consisted of 1,268 respondents (69% women) between 20 and 93 years of age. For rating, our research used the Health-related Behaviour Scale (Dosedlová, Slováčková, Klimusová, 2013). Via Principal Component Analysis (with Varimax rotation), we extracted five factors of health-related behaviour. The means of factor scores of health-related behaviour in the individual age groups were compared via General Linear Model.The five factors explaining 44% of the total variance of the 34 initial items of health-related behaviour are as follows: healthy diet, mental health, daily regimen, physical activity, and avoidance of addictive/harmful substances. The four age groups (20 – 35, 36 – 50, 51 – 65, 65+) differ significantly in all health-related behaviour factors with the exception of mental hygiene. With increasing age, individuals tend to increase their healthy food intake, keep daily regimen and avoid addictive substances; however, the amount of physical activity decreases with age