Cent Eur J Public Health 2009, 17(1):3-7 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3506

Effects of Family History and Personal Experience of Illness on Inclination to Change Health-Related Behaviour

Per Andersson1, Rickard L. Sjöberg2, John Öhrvik2, Jerzy Leppert2
1 School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden
2 Centre of Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital, Västerås, Sweden

The aim of the present study was to examine how a personal experience of illness and a family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), adjusted for sex, level of education and nationality, affect risk behaviour. Participants were 1,011 and 1,043, 50-year-old men and women from Sweden and Poland, respectively, who were recruited from a primary health care screening programme. Family history, personal experience of illness and risk behaviour (smoking and exercise habits, BMI level) were self-reported. The results showed that smoking behaviour was affected by a personal experience of illness but not by a family history of CVD. No effects of these variables were found on the remaining risk-related variables tested in this study. These results suggest that individuals with a personal experience of illness may be more inclined to change smoking behaviour than the average person. Smoking prevention strategies may therefore benefit from targeting this group in particular.

Keywords: history, experience of illness, CVD, risk behaviour, obesity

Received: June 27, 2008; Revised: September 2, 2008; Accepted: September 2, 2008; Published: March 1, 2009  Show citation

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Andersson P, Sjöberg RL, Öhrvik J, Leppert J. Effects of Family History and Personal Experience of Illness on Inclination to Change Health-Related Behaviour. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2009;17(1):3-7. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3506. PubMed PMID: 19418712.
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