Women's roles, interest in health and health behavior.

The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which women's roles are associated with health interest and health concerns. In addition, the degree to which interest and concern with health are related to health behaviors is examined. The study population includes 1155 women between the ages of 18 and 64 from a random sample of members of a large health maintenance organization. The subjects were part of a large household interview survey. Medical record data covering seven years of outpatient services are linked with the survey data. The findings indicate that those roles which typically include responsibilities for caring for and protecting the health of family members are associated with a greater interest in health. For example, women who have the responsibility for younger and more dependent children have a greater interest in health than those women with older or no children in the household. Both health interest and health concerns are weakly related in the expected direction to both self-defined and medically-defined health behaviors.