Relationship of one's views on health and life satisfaction to health habits

To examine the effects of one's views regarding health and life satisfaction on health habits, a questionnaire regarding one's views on his/her health, perceived health, life satisfaction and health habits was sent to 3, 014 randomly selected men and women aged 20 to 69 years of a town in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Analyses were conducted on the data of 2, 501 respondents. Perceived health deteriorated as age increased, but life satisfaction increased with age. Perceived health was positively correlated with mental health status, internal health locus of control, and life satisfaction. Leisure time, regularity of meals, and intake of green-yellow vegetables and seaweed increased with age in men and women, and smoking prevalence decreased with age in men. The smoking prevalence increased in those who cared less about their health than achievement of their purpose, aim and desire in their lives. Aging and the presence of chronic diseases, as a whole, positively affected health habits, while lower life satisfaction tended to have negative effects. The factors affecting health habits were different by types of health habits. These results suggest that in order to promote health habits, intervention should be conducted individually and also according to health status, one's views on health and life satisfaction.