Abstract
Objective: To determine whether the stage of lifestyle change is consistent with health behaviors among Japanese adult men and women.
Methods: This study analyzed the responses of 3,364 participants to a self-administered questionnaire survey conducted by a health insurance society. The questions included those pertaining to gender, age, body mass index, stage of lifestyle change, and health behaviors (11 items, including eating behavior, exercise behavior, smoking behavior, and adequate rest). We used the Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests with multiple comparisons for examining each variable and multivariate logistic regression for examining the health behavior-related action/maintenance stage.
Results: The stage distribution was as follows: precontemplation stage, 610 participants (18.1%); contemplation stage, 1,562 participants (46.4%); preparation stage, 521 participants (15.5%); action stage, 313 participants (9.3%); and maintenance stage, 358 participants (10.7%). Regular exercise (odds ratio [OR] = 4.41, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 3.30-5.90), physical activity (OR = 1.67, 95%CI = 1.26-2.23), and high-speed walking (OR = 1.46, 95%CI = 1.11-1.91) were related to the action/maintenance stage in men. In addition, not skipping breakfast (OR = 1.62, 95%CI = 1.03-2.53), infrequent alcohol consumption (OR = 1.70, 95%CI = 1.07-2.66), and adequate rest (OR = 1.46, 95%CI = 1.04-2.03) were related to the action/maintenance stage in women.
Conclusions: This study indicated that exercise behaviors were more strongly consistent with the stage of lifestyle change than other health behaviors were. Thus, the results suggest that more than 1 item should be assessed to determine the readiness of the individual with respect to changing multiple behaviors.
