ABSTRACT
The significance of behaviour and lifestyle for health and well-being is now widely acknowledged. For instance, studies in Alameda County, USA identified seven features of lifestyle – not smoking, moderate alcohol intake, sleeping 7-8 hours per night, exercising regularly, maintaining a desirable body weight, avoiding snacks, and eating breakfast regularly were together associated with morbidity and subsequent long-term survival (Belloc and Breslow 1972; Breslow and Enstrom 1980). And such results have been replicated in a number of samples (Metzner, Carman and House 1983; Brock, Haefner and Noble 1988). These behaviours have been referred to as health behaviours. With health behaviour being defined as ‘Any activity undertaken by a person believing himself to be healthy for the purpose of preventing disease or detecting it at an asymptomatic stage’ (Kasl and Cobb 1966). Such behaviours are now the target of major health promotion campaigns and health promotion advice given through primary health care contacts (The Health of the Nation 1992). Research into personal health behaviours and their determinants is one of the most rapidly developing fields of psychology (Rodin and Salovey, 1989).
