Healthy
habits pay off in long term
 |
| Initial habits concerning nutrition and physical exercise will influence physical fitness and health in a statistically significant way in the long term. Credit: © Photographee.eu / Fotolia |
Can initial modes of
behavior be used to predict how fit and healthy a person will be 18 years
later?
This question was in the focus of studies performed by researchers of
KIT, Technische Universität München, and the universities of Konstanz and
Bayreuth. A basic survey covered about 500 adults over a longer term.
The
result: Initial habits determine physical fitness and health in the long term.
The study is now reported by the scientists in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
In their study, the
researchers used a four-stage biopsychosocial model to identify mutual interactions
of health-relevant factors. On the first level, distal, environment-related
factors, such as the migration background and socioeconomic status, can be
found. The second level covers proximal, personal factors, such as social
support, stress management strategies, and the coherence feeling. The third
level includes behavioral factors, such as nutrition habits, smoking, and
physical exercise. Physical fitness and health make up the fourth level.
To study the influence
of health-relevant factors on physical fitness and health, the scientists used
a municipal survey made by KIT from 1992 to 2010: The participants, 243 women
and 252 men at an average age of initially 45 years, were selected randomly from
the register of inhabitants of the municipality of Bad Schönborn. In the years
1992, 1997, 2002, and 2010, the participants filled out questionnaires and
passed anthropometric and medical examinations and fitness tests.
Based on this survey,
an analysis using statistical methods now revealed that factors on all levels,
above all the migration background and socioeconomic status, stress management
strategies and expectation of impacts as well as nutrition and physical
exercise habits, had a direct or indirect influence on physical fitness and
health of the participants in 1992. Moreover, initial nutrition and physical
exercise were found to affect the status of fitness in the following 18 years.
According to the study,
the factors of migration background and so-cioeconomic status do not directly,
but indirectly influence the health-relevant habits. Further development of
stress management strategies by persons of lower socioeconomic status may
improve the nutrition habits. A better impact expectation may improve exercise
habits.
Surprisingly, the study
did not reveal any direct relationship between physical fitness and health, the
parameters being the body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, blood pressure,
cholesterol, and uric acid.
According to the scientists, this may possibly be
explained by the fact that the fitness tests did not consider endurance that is
a major health-determining factor.
"Other studies clearly revealed that
changes of physical fitness also cause the health-relevant risk factors to change,"
Professor Woll reports. In the future, the researchers plan to analyze the
results in a more differentiated manner in order to obtain further insight into
health-relevant modes of behavior and their impacts on health during life.
Story Source:
The above story is
based on materials provided by Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
1.
Lena Lämmle, Darko Jekauc, Alexander Woll, Susanne Tittlbach,
Klaus Bös. Does initial
behavior predict our physical fitness and health 18 years later?Psychology
of Sport and Exercise, 2014; 15 (1): 81 DOI:10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.09.010
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