The effects of gender and age on health related behaviors.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Lifestyle-related diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers represent the greatest global health threat. Greater insight into health needs and beliefs, using broad community samples, is vital to reduce the burden of chronic disease. This study aimed to investigate gender, age, screening practices, health beliefs, and perceived future health needs for healthy ageing.Methods
Random probability sampling using self-completion surveys in 1456 adults residing in Australia.Results
Screening behaviors were associated with gender and age. Men and women >51 years were more likely (27%) to have screening health checks than those <50 years (2%). Factors nominated to influence health were lifestyle (92%), relationships (82%), and environment (80%). Women were more likely to nominate preparedness to have an annual health check, willingness to seek advice from their medical practitioner and to attend education sessions. Numerous health fears were associated with ageing, however participants were more likely to have a financial (72%) rather than a health plan (42%). More women and participants >51 years wanted information regarding illness prevention than men or those aged <30 years.Conclusion
Age and gender are associated with health related behaviors. Optimal health is perceived as a priority, yet often this perception is not translated into preventative action. These findings will inform future research and policy makers as we strive towards a healthier ageing society and the prevention of chronic disease.
SUBMITTER: Deeks A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2713232 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The effects of gender and age on health related behaviors.
Deeks Amanda A Lombard Catherine C Michelmore Janet J Teede Helena H
BMC public health 20090630
<h4>Background</h4>Lifestyle-related diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers represent the greatest global health threat. Greater insight into health needs and beliefs, using broad community samples, is vital to reduce the burden of chronic disease. This study aimed to investigate gender, age, screening practices, health beliefs, and perceived future health needs for healthy ageing.<h4>Methods</h4>Random probability sampling using self-completion surveys in 1456 ad ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:BackgroundWith conflicting information about COVID-19, the general public may be uncertain about how to proceed in terms of precautionary behavior and decisions about whether to return to activity.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to determine the factors associated with COVID-19-related concerns, precautionary behaviors, and willingness to return to activity.MethodsNational survey data were obtained from the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project, an ongoing cross-sectional weekly survey. The sample was provided by Lucid, a web-based market research platform. Three outcomes were evaluated: (1) COVID-19-related concerns, (2) precautionary behaviors, and (3) willingness to return to activity. Key independent variables included age, gender, race or ethnicity, education, household income, political party support, religion, news consumption, number of medication prescriptions, perceived COVID-19 status, and timing of peak COVID-19 infections by state.ResultsThe data included 125,508 responses from web-based surveys conducted over 20 consecutive weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic (comprising approximately 6250 adults per week), between March 19 and August 5, 2020, approved by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Institutional Review Board for analysis. A substantial number of participants were not willing to return to activity even after the restrictions were lifted. Weighted multivariate logistic regressions indicated the following groups had different outcomes (all P<.001): individuals aged ≥65 years (COVID-19-related concerns: OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.93-2.18; precautionary behaviors: OR 2.38, 95% CI 2.02-2.80; return to activity: OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.37-0.46 vs 18-40 years); men (COVID-19-related concerns: OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.70-0.75; precautionary behaviors: OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.67-0.81; return to activity: OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.88-2.12 vs women); taking ≥4 medications (COVID-19-related concerns: OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.40-1.54; precautionary behaviors: OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.20-1.555; return to activity: OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.69-0.81 vs <3 medications); Republicans (COVID-19-related concerns: OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.38-0.42; precautionary behaviors: OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.40-0.50; return to activity: OR 2.22, 95% CI 2.09-2.36 vs Democrats); and adults who reported having COVID-19 (COVID-19-related concerns: OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.12-1.39; precautionary behaviors: OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.52-0.81; return to activity: OR 3.99, 95% CI 3.48-4.58 vs those who did not).ConclusionsParticipants' age, party affiliation, and perceived COVID-19 status were strongly associated with their COVID-19-related concerns, precautionary behaviors, and willingness to return to activity. Future studies need to develop and test targeted messaging approaches and consider political partisanship to encourage preventative behaviors and willingness to return to activities.
| S-EPMC8080961 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There has been a great deal of interest in identifying potential biomarkers of aging (Butler et al. 2004). Biomarkers of aging would be useful to predict potential vulnerabilities in an individual that may arise well before they are chronologically expected, due to idiosyncratic aging rates that occur between individuals. Prior attempts to identify biomarkers of aging have often relied on the comparisons of long-lived animals to a wild-type control (Dhahbi et al. 2004). However, the effect of interventions in model systems that prolong lifespan (such as single gene mutations, or caloric restriction) can sometimes be difficult to interpret due to the manipulation itself having multiple unforeseen consequences on physiology, unrelated to aging itself (Gems et al. 2002; Partridge & Gems 2006). The search for predictive biomarkers of aging therefore is problematic, and the identification of metrics that can be used to predict either physiological or chronological age would be of great value (Butler et al. 2004). One methodology which has been used to identify biomarkers for numerous pathologies is gene expression profiling. Here, we report whole-genome expression profiles of individual wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans covering the entire wild-type nematode life span. Individual nematodes were scored for either age-related behavioral phenotypes, or survival, and then subsequently associated with their respective gene expression profiles. This facilitated the identification of transcriptional profiles that were highly associated with either physiological or chronological age. Overall, our approach serves as a paradigm for identifying potential biomarkers of aging in higher organisms that can be repeatedly sampled throughout their lifespan. The full normalized data set with expression values for all genes of all individual worms at all ages (104 worms/arrays) is available as a 28Mb download as a supplementary file on this page (GSE12290.txt). Keywords: time couse Time course of aging in C. elegans. 7 ages were assayed, with a minimum of 9 biological replicates per timepoint, and as many as 17 biological replicates. All ages were compared to an independent 4 day old (young) pooled control.
2008-09-16 | E-GEOD-12290 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:RationaleUnderstanding the impact of COVID-19 on different population cohorts and which personality traits affected individual's coping responses can help identify strategies to promote self-directed behaviours, thereby enhancing and maintaining individual's mental well-being.ObjectiveUsing longitudinal data for the UK, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals' mental well-being, focusing on age, gender, and personality traits as possible modifiers.MethodsWe explore the longitudinal nature of the data using individual fixed effects models, which implicitly control for unobserved time-invariant individual-level characteristics. Our sample is an unbalanced panel consisting of 373,555 person-years observations, observed from 2009 until June 2020.ResultsThe negative impacts of the first months of the pandemic period are found to be larger for young adults (aged 16-25 years) and vary by personality traits. The increase in psychological distress symptoms is more pronounced for individuals who score higher in neuroticism, extroversion, and openness to experience. Indeed, for introverted young people, recent events may have actually brought a sense of calm. Other findings indicate that worsening in the psychological distress level occurs alongside with increased feelings of loneliness.ConclusionsOur findings support the theoretical knowledge that different people have different psychological and behaviour responses and personality concepts can be used when studying individual's adaptive behaviour in critical situations such as COVID-19. Our results indicate the necessity of public health programmes to assist distressed young individuals.
| S-EPMC8915456 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There has been a great deal of interest in identifying potential biomarkers of aging (Butler et al. 2004). Biomarkers of aging would be useful to predict potential vulnerabilities in an individual that may arise well before they are chronologically expected, due to idiosyncratic aging rates that occur between individuals. Prior attempts to identify biomarkers of aging have often relied on the comparisons of long-lived animals to a wild-type control (Dhahbi et al. 2004). However, the effect of interventions in model systems that prolong lifespan (such as single gene mutations, or caloric restriction) can sometimes be difficult to interpret due to the manipulation itself having multiple unforeseen consequences on physiology, unrelated to aging itself (Gems et al. 2002; Partridge & Gems 2006). The search for predictive biomarkers of aging therefore is problematic, and the identification of metrics that can be used to predict either physiological or chronological age would be of great value (Butler et al. 2004). One methodology which has been used to identify biomarkers for numerous pathologies is gene expression profiling. Here, we report whole-genome expression profiles of individual wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans covering the entire wild-type nematode life span. Individual nematodes were scored for either age-related behavioral phenotypes, or survival, and then subsequently associated with their respective gene expression profiles. This facilitated the identification of transcriptional profiles that were highly associated with either physiological or chronological age. Overall, our approach serves as a paradigm for identifying potential biomarkers of aging in higher organisms that can be repeatedly sampled throughout their lifespan. The full normalized data set with expression values for all genes of all individual worms at all ages (104 worms/arrays) is available as a 28Mb download as a supplementary file on this page (GSE12290.txt). Keywords: time couse
2008-09-16 | GSE12290 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundThe Age-Friendly Health Systems (AFHS) aims to improve the experience of care for adults aged 65 years and older through the 4Ms framework, an evidence-based approach to care planning that emphasizes what matters most to the older person, mentation, mobility, and medication. The aim of this study was to examine clinicians' attitudes, knowledge, and practices concerning AFHS and the 4Ms.MethodsWe surveyed U.S.-based health care providers randomly identified from the Medscape database. The sample was weighted based on sex, U.S. Census region, and ethnic diversity of health occupations. We examined the differences between cohorts using proportions tests and logistic regression models.ResultsMore than 90% of clinicians (n = 1684) agreed that "older patients require a different approach to care than younger patients." Fifty percent of clinicians "always" take the age of their patient into consideration when determining care. A majority of clinicians said they discuss each of the 4Ms with older patients and/or their family caregivers. Screening for depression and review of high-risk medication use are among the leading types of age-friendly care that clinicians provide to older patients. A minority of clinicians are asking older adults about and aligning the care plan with What Matters.ConclusionsA majority of clinicians acknowledged the benefits of providing care via AFHS but reported limited knowledge of the specificities of the 4Ms framework and are not necessarily taking the age of their patients into consideration when determining the best form of care. Health care settings that have implemented the 4Ms framework appear to be doing so in an incomplete way. Our study reinforces the case for training primary care providers on how to adopt the evidence-based 4Ms framework in clinical practice effectively and consistently.
| S-EPMC9299469 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Previous studies suggest that there may be age and gender related differences in salivary gland function. However, the limited and often conflicting information available from healthy populations makes it difficult to confirm these differences. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate and compare changes in gene expression associated with age and gender in the human parotid gland. Differential expression, defined as statistically significant differences with at least 1.5 fold changes, was detected using the Affymetrix® GeneChip® HGU133plus2.0 microarray in 787 gene probe sets; 320 showed higher expression in males, while 467 showed higher expression in females. Several genes associated with saliva secretion were differentially expressed in male and female parotid gland including vesicle-associated membrane protein 3 VAMP3, synaptosomal-associated protein SNAP23, RAS oncogene family member RAB1A, syntaxin binding protein STXBP1. When the gene expression results from the youngest (19-38 years old) and the oldest (65-69 years old) female subjects were further evaluated, it was found that the expression of 228 genes were altered during aging; 155 genes were down-regulated, whereas 73 genes were up-regulated in the female parotid gland. Of the genes that were altered during aging, 24 of the 28 genes (86%) classified as being associated with immune responses were down-regulated in the aged parotid gland. A panel of differentially expressed, age- and gender-related genes was selected for further study by quantitative, real-time RT-PCR. Comparable differences in gene expression were detected by both Affymetrix array and quantitative, real-time RT-PCR methods. Taken together, our data suggest that salivary gland function may be adversely affected in the aged population due, at least in part, to the down regulation of several categories of genes. Moreover, the gender specific gene expressions identified in the present study correlates with the previously observed sexual dimorphism in salivary gland function. Keywords: Human Parotid Gland
2008-12-21 | GSE8764 | GEO
Project description:Our purpose was to examine the effects of age and gender on physical performance. We assessed a one-hour swimming performance and participation of 4,271 presumably healthy men and women, aged 19-91 years, from the 2001-2003 United States Masters Swimming long-distance (1 h) national competition. The decline in performance with increasing age was found to be quadratic rather than linear. The equation which best fit variation in 1 h swimming distance in meters (m) according to variations in age in years (y) in men was: distance (m) = 4058 + 2.18 age-0.29 age (http://www.acsmmsse.org/pt/re/msse/positionstandards.htm;jsessionid=DiRVACC7YS3mq27s5kV3vwpEVSokmmD1ZJLC7pdnol3KcfoSu0t!1096311956!-949856145!9001!-1), with the same equation for women except that 380 m needed to be subtracted from the calculated value at all ages (about a 10% difference). There was a large overlap in performance between men and women. The overall mean decline in performance with age was about 50% and was parallel in men and women. The mean difference in distance for a 1-year increment in age was -9.7 m at 21 y of age, -21.3 m at 40 y, and -44.5 m at 80 y. Far greater declines of about 96% in numbers participating with advanced age (80 y and over, 4% of peak numbers) were observed than in the 40-49 y age group. In conclusion, the declines in performance were parallel in men and women at all ages, and the 1-year age-related declines in performance were about twice as great at 40 y and more than four-times as great at 80 y than at 20 y of age, with even greater age-related declines in participation being noted for both men and women.
| S-EPMC2267663 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundIn this paper, we argue for Gender as a Sociocultural Variable (GASV) as a complement to Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV). Sex (biology) and gender (sociocultural behaviors and attitudes) interact to influence health and disease processes across the lifespan-which is currently playing out in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study develops a gender assessment tool-the Stanford Gender-Related Variables for Health Research-for use in clinical and population research, including large-scale health surveys involving diverse Western populations. While analyzing sex as a biological variable is widely mandated, gender as a sociocultural variable is not, largely because the field lacks quantitative tools for analyzing the influence of gender on health outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive review of English-language measures of gender from 1975 to 2015 to identify variables across three domains: gender norms, gender-related traits, and gender relations. This yielded 11 variables tested with 44 items in three US cross-sectional survey populations: two internet-based (N = 2051; N = 2135) and a patient-research registry (N = 489), conducted between May 2017 and January 2018.ResultsExploratory and confirmatory factor analyses reduced 11 constructs to 7 gender-related variables: caregiver strain, work strain, independence, risk-taking, emotional intelligence, social support, and discrimination. Regression analyses, adjusted for age, ethnicity, income, education, sex assigned at birth, and self-reported gender identity, identified associations between these gender-related variables and self-rated general health, physical and mental health, and health-risk behaviors.ConclusionOur new instrument represents an important step toward developing more comprehensive and precise survey-based measures of gender in relation to health. Our questionnaire is designed to shed light on how specific gender-related behaviors and attitudes contribute to health and disease processes, irrespective of-or in addition to-biological sex and self-reported gender identity. Use of these gender-related variables in experimental studies, such as clinical trials, may also help us understand if gender factors play an important role as treatment-effect modifiers and would thus need to be further considered in treatment decision-making.
| S-EPMC7898259 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundIt is well established that the incidence, prevalence and presentation of mental disorders differ by gender, ethnicity and age, and there is evidence that there is also differential representation in mental health research by these characteristics. The aim of this paper is to a) review the current literature on the nature of barriers to participation in mental health research, with particular reference to gender, age and ethnicity; b) review the evidence on the effectiveness of strategies used to overcome these barriers.MethodStudies published up to December 2008 were identified using MEDLINE, PsycINFO and EMBASE using relevant mesh headings and keywords.ResultsForty-nine papers were identified. There was evidence of a wide range of barriers including transportation difficulties, distrust and suspicion of researchers, and the stigma attached to mental illness. Strategies to overcome these barriers included the use of bilingual staff, assistance with travel, avoiding the use of stigmatising language in marketing material and a focus on education about the disorder under investigation. There were very few evaluations of such strategies, but there was evidence that ethnically matching recruiters to potential participants did not improve recruitment rates. Educational strategies were helpful and increased recruitment.ConclusionMental health researchers should consider including caregivers in recruitment procedures where possible, provide clear descriptions of study aims and describe the representativeness of their sample when reporting study results. Studies that systematically investigate strategies to overcome barriers to recruitment are needed.
| S-EPMC3016310 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Global conservation is increasingly reliant on young people forming meaningful connections with urban nature. However, interactions with nearby nature do not inspire all children and adolescents living in cities to act pro-environmentally. Our survey of over 1,000 school students from Sydney, Australia, revealed that 28% of respondents maintained strong nature connections. Younger students (aged 8-11) were more strongly connected with nature than their older peers (aged 12-14), and environmental behaviors were negatively associated with increasing age. Differences between boys and girls were less consistent, resulting in part from differential functioning of questionnaire items. Regardless, girls were more willing than boys to volunteer for conservation. Our findings suggest that policies designed to strengthen urban children's nature connections will be most effective if they explicitly address the "adolescent dip" and other emerging demographic patterns, thereby ensuring all young people reap the health, wellbeing, and conservation benefits of connecting with nature.
| S-EPMC8321113 | biostudies-literature