Preventive Health Care, Social Influence, and Demographics on Lifestyle of Taiwanese Baby Boomers

Abstract

Preventive health care information (PCHI) is a vital aspect of controlling the cost of healthcare and preventing unnecessary medical procedures. The purpose of this study is to examine how demographic variables (i.e., education, gender, age, employment status, and income level), health condition, health knowledge, and social influences (professional, peers, and family), affect lifestyle. Lifestyle is measured by a perceived lifestyle change question and a series of Likert-scale questions that are grouped into two variables, (i.e., healthy lifestyle and healthy actions). The study used data from 390 respondents in Taiwan. Both perceived health knowledge and peers were consistently found to be good predictors for all three types of lifestyle measures. Education, income level, and gender were found to be important predictors for some measures of lifestyle. Perceived health condition was found to be negatively related to healthy actions. This study confirms the importance of demographic variables, perceived health condition, perceived health knowledge, and social influence. These findings then suggest that further research is needed in order to ensure generalizability.