Stability and Change in Health-Related Behaviors of Midlife Swedish Women
Abstract
We investigated the dimensions and stability in health-related behaviors (HRBs) among midlife Swedish women, and the factors that predicted change in those behaviors. At age 43, 569 women from a representative longitudinal sample completed questionnaires about lifestyle (diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol) and participated in medical screening. Four years later we mailed a follow-up questionnaire. HRBs clustered in two dimensions: healthy eating and addictions. There was a high degree of stability in HRBs; all women slightly increased their HRBs over time. After controlling for previous HRBs, we found that education, marital status, and having children at home were significant predictors of HRBs 4 years later.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Positive protective health behaviour, such as vaccination, could promote participation in future health screenings or alleviate anxieties around screening outcomes.
“Instead, positive protective health behaviour (e.g. vaccination) could promote participation in future health screenings135,136 or alleviate anxieties around screening outcomes, another common barrier to screening.”
From Identifying the key barriers, facilitators and factors associated with cervical cancer screening attendance in young women: A systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [136]
Cites
The theory of planned behavior
Ajzen, I. (1991) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t · Cited by 90,587 · see citing works
Nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation
Silagy, C., Lancaster, T., Stead, L., Mant, D., & Fowler, G. (2004) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd000146.pub2 · Cited by 972 · see citing works
Mortality from smoking worldwide
Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Boreham, J., Thun, M., Heath, C., & Doll, R. (1996) · British Medical Bulletin · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a011519 · Cited by 638 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Shpendi, S., Norman, P., Gibson-Miller, J., & Webster, R. (2025) · Women's Health · doi:10.1177/17455057251324309 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
- Authors
- Benzies, K. M., Wångby, M., & Bergman, L. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Calgary (CA)
- Lund University (SE)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- ORCID
- Benzies, Karen M.
- Venue
- Health Care for Women International
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2008-10-06
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 997-1018
- ISSN
- 0739-9332 (ISSN-L)
- 1096-4665
- OpenAlex
- W2059069087
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 3.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Care For Women International (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Wellbeing Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- health behavior, middle-aged women, behavioral stability, lifestyle modification, healthy eating, addiction, diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, marital status, Swedish women
- MeSH terms
- Alcohol Drinking, Attitude to Health, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Feeding Behavior, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Life Style, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Regression Analysis, Self Care, Smoking, Sweden, Women, Nursing Methodology Research, Health Behavior, Exercise, Women's Health, Qualitative Research
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
