Grant: Catalyst Grant: Analysis of CLSA Data

The behaviours of everyday life - be they health, family, community, or work-related - are not carried out in isolation from each other. Rather, our behaviours impact on the other behaviours that we do. Over time, people develop patterns of behaviour such that one behaviour is linked to another one. For some people, the more physical activity they engage in, the less alcohol they drink and less they smoke. This extends beyond lifestyle: spending time raising young children is linked to healthy eating, but work behaviour is linked to unhealthy eating. However, guidelines and support for healthy aging remain out of step with this reality, instead focusing on individual health behaviours (such as healthy eating) isolated from the multiple health and other behaviours that characterize daily life as adults. Understanding what determines the patterns of behaviours in Canadians as they age, and how different patterns are linked with physical and mental health and life satisfaction may provide opportunities to move beyond support strategies that focus on a single behaviour and to promote change across multiple health behaviours. Our experienced team will use data collected from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to determine whether Canadians can be grouped in terms of the different patterns of health, family, community, or work behaviours that they do. We will then investigate whether particular social or demographic features are associated with these patterns of multiple behaviours, and whether there are differences in health and life satisfaction across these patterns of behaviour. Similar analyses have been conducted in other countries, but not yet in Canada. CLSA data provide a unique opportunity to study these questions. Our findings will help to develop new support for healthy aging that considers the pattern of multiple behaviours that define an adults' everyday life that may better reflect the real-world complexity of caring for Canadians as they age.