Health behaviors in elderly people. A 5-year follow-up of 75-year-old people living in three Nordic localities. Smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and healthy eating, and attitudes to their importance.

Few studies about health behavior among elderly persons in the Nordic countries are available, and our knowledge about longitudinal changes is especially limited. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of selected health behaviors as reported at age 75 years in Finland, Sweden and Denmark together with answers regarding attitudes to such habits, and study longitudinal changes between 75 and 80 years. The study population included 499 men and 704 women born in 1914/15 and examined in 1989/90 in Jyväskylä (Finland), Göteborg (Sweden), and Glostrup (Denmark). Survivors were re-examined in 1994/95. A self-administered validated questionnaire developed from the Danish Nationwide Health Surveys was given to the participants during a home visit and checked when the subjects came to the laboratory examination. The Danes had the highest proportion of smokers and persons with daily alcoholic beverage consumption and the smallest proportion of healthy eaters, but the Swedes had the most sedentary life-style. Women had the healthiest life-style. Between ages 75 and 80 years, the proportion of participants who tried to improve their health decreased, but there was no change in believing the importance of one's own effort in maintaining health. The free-time physical activity decreased, but there was no change in the attitude towards physical activity. There were major cross-national differences among the three Nordic localities, but the health behaviors were rather stable, though the proportion of participants who tried to improve their health decreased. Not more than 60 to 70% of the subjects believed that their own efforts are important to health.