Publication
Indicators for health education in Scotland; summary of findings from the 1996 Health Education Population Survey (HEPS)
Behavioural risk factors
Health education seeks to influence the population prevalence of healthrelated behavioural risk factors, although of course there are many otherinfluences which affect trends in these behaviours. HEPS provides prevalencedata for four behavioural risk factors for the adult population in Scotland, aswell as a summary score consisting of the number of risk factors present foreach individual. These risk factors are smoking, poor diet, being sedentary andalcohol consumption above the recommended maximum limits.
For the purposes of the survey, eating fruit and vegetables daily is used asa proxy indicator of a healthy diet since good nutrition has been found to beparticularly highly correlated with a high consumption of fruit and vegetables.Being sedentary is defined as not doing any 20 minute sessions of vigorous or30 minutes of moderate physical activity during a typical week. For alcoholconsumption, the weekly equivalent of the current recommended maximum limitsare used (28 units for men and 21 for women).
Behaviour indicator: The proportions of people aged 16-74 presenting anyof the following behavioural risk factors:
|
The proportions of respondents in each risk category are shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Percentage of respondents with behavioural risk factors
| Risk factor |
% |
| Smoking regularly |
37 |
| Not eating fruit and vegetables every day |
43 |
| Being sedentary |
36 |
| Drinking more than the recommended maximumlimits |
11 |
The extent of risk behaviours in the population expressed as the percentagesof people presenting a given number of risk factors is illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Number of risk factors present among respondents
Number of risk factors present |
% |
0 |
26 |
1 |
35 |
2 |
28 |
3 |
9 |
4 |
3 |