The effects of personal and environmental factors on health behaviors of older adults.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of personal factors, self-esteem and functional health and environmental factors, social support and resource availability, on health behaviors of older adults. The interaction effects of personal and environmental factors on health behavior were also examined. Self-reported survey data were collected from a sample of 120 subjects. Results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the combination of personal and environmental factors explained 13% of the variance in health behaviors for the older adult sample population. Resource availability and functional health made significant independent contributions to the explanation. Adding variables to represent the interaction of social support and functional health and the interaction of social support and self-esteem significantly increased the explained variance in health behavior (to 24%) for older residents of resource-poor environments.