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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1396684

Empirical analysis of health-related behaviors among older Hakka adults: A latent class analysis

Provisionally accepted
Longhua Cai Longhua Cai 1Lingling Zhang Lingling Zhang 2Xiaojun Liu Xiaojun Liu 3*
  • 1 Department of Health Management, School of Health Management,, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
  • 2 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health,, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
  • 3 Department of Health Management, School of Health Management, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstract Background: Little is known about health-related behaviors of the older Hakka population in China. We aimed to explore the characteristics and correlates of health-related behaviors among older Hakka adults. Methods: We used data from the China's Health-Related Quality of Life Survey for Older Adults 2018. Latent class analysis (LCA) defined latent classes of health-related behaviors for 1,262 older Hakka adults aged 60 and above. Generalized linear regression and multinomial logistic regression analysis were used to identify factors influencing the numbers and the latent classes of health-related behaviors, respectively. Results: The LCA showed that the latent classes could be stratified as the risk group (14.82%), healthy group (55.71%), and inactive group (29.48%). Sex, age, years of education, current residence, living arrangement, average annual household income, and currently employed were associated with the number of healthy behaviors. Compared with the participants in the healthy group, widowed/others (OR = 5.85, 95% CI = 3.27, 10.48), had 15,001-30,000 (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.21, 3.47) and 60,001 or higher (OR = 3.78, 95% CI = 1.26, 11.36) average annual household income, and currently employed (OR = 3.40, 95% CI = 1.99, 5.81) were highly associated with risk group. Additionally, the participants who are widowed/others (OR = 4.30, 95% CI = 2.70, 6.85) and currently employed (OR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.27, 2.98) were highly associated with the inactive group. Conclusions: This study identified factors specifically associated with older Hakka adults’ health-related behaviors from an LCA perspective. The findings indicate that policymakers should give more attention to older adults living alone and implement practical interventions to promote health-related behaviors among them.

    Keywords: older Hakka adults, Health-related behavior, latent class analysis, Influencing factors, Sociodemographic characteristics

    Received: 06 Mar 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cai, Zhang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xiaojun Liu, Department of Health Management, School of Health Management, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.