THE HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE SURVEY

Abstract

Obviously, behaviours affect health, though their relative importance, compared with other aspects of lifestyle, remains to be considered. It would also seem likely that attitudes are in some way related to the way in which people choose to live. Attitudes may be susceptible to change through health education: thus it is argued that ‘the effectiveness of a preventive strategy depends to a large extent on people’s attitudes and behaviour. This general thesis is well worth stating right from the start’ ( DHSS 1976 :6). The problematic area of this ‘general thesis’, however, lies in the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. This is a complex subject, on which there is a great body of research (for reviews see, e.g., Wallston and Wallston 1978 , Anderson 1984 , Dean 1984) and which cannot be dealt with in its entirety here. However, since the Health and Lifestyle Survey did include many questions about beliefs and attitudes, the opportunity does arise to explore some aspects of this relationship. In particular, what is the importance of attitudes, as intervening between social circumstances and the patterns of behaviour described in the previous chapter?

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