Similar but different. Health behaviour pathways differ between men and women

The purpose of the study was to examine middle to older aged Australians’ healthy eating, eating out, and physical activity behaviours and to investigate their relationships with likely antecedents such as demographics, personal values, health background, and attention to weight and health habits. A mail survey was conducted among a random sample of men and women aged between 38 and 79 years; 1105 usable questionnaires were obtained. Structural equation modelling was used to examine relationships between the variables. The results showed that there were distinct relationships between predictive variables and behavioural and BMI outcomes for men and women. For example, healthy eating, eating out behaviours were positively associated with body weight for women but not men while attention to weight and health habits was positively related to hedonism values for women but not for men. The interrelationships among the predictors and the outcome variables appear to be more complex for women than men. The implications of the findings for nutrition communication are discussed.

► Healthy behaviours were related positively to attention for both genders.
► More health attention was paid by universalist, but not smoking and drinking, males.
► Health attention was positively related to age, universalism, and hedonism among women.
► Health attention was negatively associated to BMI and smoking among women.
► Universalism was positively related to education but negatively to drinking among women.