Primary Submission Category: Health behaviors
Investigating Health Lifestyles Trajectories from Young Adulthood through Early Midlife
Authors: Carlyn Graham, Michelle Frisco, Calvin Pyatt,
Presenting Author: Carlyn Graham*
Health lifestyles, or clusters of health-related behaviors that are generally organized around social class lines, have impacts on physical and mental health, and longevity. Research has categorized health lifestyles at different life course stages, but less is known about health lifestyles trajectories, especially across young adulthood and into midlife. This is notable because variability exists for different health-related behaviors as young adults age into midlife. Furthermore, this variability is likely to be patterned by social characteristics, meaning that health lifestyles trajectories have important implications for health disparities. Our study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and Group-Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM) to determine how health lifestyles change from young adulthood to early midlife. We define health lifestyles by frequency of smoking, binge drinking, physical activity, and fast-food consumption. We also determine probabilities of belonging to group-based trajectories by key social characteristics including sex, race/ethnicity, and adolescent family socioeconomic status (SES). Results reveal five discrete group-based trajectories across an approximately 16-year period. Some group-based trajectories can be socially defined as “healthier” and “unhealthier”, and others as transitioning from “unhealthier” to “healthier” and vice versa. Results also suggest variation exists in group membership probabilities by social characteristics. As examples, women had a significantly lower probability of membership in the group that took up heavy smoking and increased binge drinking in their late twenties than men, and individuals with higher adolescent SES had greater likelihoods of being in the “healthier” trajectories. Overall, there are distinguishable groupings of the development of health-related behaviors across young adulthood and into early midlife, and variation exists by social characteristics.