Specificity of health-related behaviours in middle and late adulthood

Background
Engaging in health-related behaviours is conditioned by many factors, including psychological and social ones. The extent to which it is done is also determined by gender and age. Health-related activity has specific and, presumably, different meanings at different stages of adulthood, which is associated with implementing by people roles and tasks typical of a given period of life. The study aimed to determine the specifics of the health-related behaviour in middle and late adulthood.

Material and methods
The research was conducted on a group of 285 people, including 154 persons in middle adulthood, i.e. 40-58 years old (M = 45.05, SD = 3.63) - 77 women and 77 men, and 130 in late adulthood, i.e. 61-88 years old (M = 71.32 SD = 5.81) - 70 women and 60 men. The Catalogue of Healthy Behaviour by Z. Juczyński (2001) was used to measure health-related behaviours. The tool enabled determining the overall level of health-related behaviours and their consistency in four selected categories, i.e. healthy eating habits, preventive behaviours, health-related practices and positive mental attitudes.

Results
The results indicate that women exhibit a higher level of health-related behaviours when compared to men (regardless of age), which is also evidenced in women in late adulthood when compared to those in middle adulthood. The extent of health-related behaviours in specific categories was also compared between groups. Functions of health-related behaviours were discussed with regard to their specifics of people’s roles performed in society as well as the implementation of the development tasks typical of particular stages of adulthood.

Conclusions
It is recommended to adjust prevention and health promotion programmes to particular periods of human development and gender.