The Development of the Lifestyle and Habits Questionnaire-Brief Version: Relationship to Quality of Life and Stress in College Students

• Published in: Prevention science Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 103 - 114
• Main Authors: Dinzeo, Thomas J., Thayasivam, Umashanger, Sledjeski, Eve M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accident prevention; Adolescent; Adult; Alcohol use; Attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Child and School Psychology; College campuses; College students; Drug use; Exercise; Feedback; General aspects; Health Psychology; Humans; Life Style; Life styles; Lifestyles; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental stress; Nutrition; Physical fitness; Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation; Prevention; Principal Component Analysis; Psychometrics; Public Health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Stress, Psychological; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult; Young adults; United States > US; Lifestyle; Health behaviors; College students; Stress; Quality of life; Human; Questionnaire; Young adult; Health behavior; Student; Life style
• ISSN: 1389-4986; 1573-6695
• DOI: 10.1007/s11121-013-0370-1

The authors describe the development and preliminary evaluation of the Lifestyle and Habits Questionnaire-brief version (LHQ-B). Three hundred seventy-seven undergraduate students (ages 18–25) participated. Responses were collected through either a web-based or face-to-face survey. Data reductive procedures were used with a preexisting lifestyle inventory to create an abbreviated measure. The relationship between lifestyle domains and indicators of wellbeing (levels of stress and quality of life (QOL)) were also examined. Eight lifestyle domains, encompassing 42 items, were identified and found to have good psychometric properties. The resulting LHQ-B measure can be self-administered/scored and contains norm-referenced feedback. The domains of psychological health, physical health and exercise, and sense of purpose were the best predictors of QOL while psychological health, social concern, and the accident prevention domains predicted levels of stress. The results support the use of the LHQ-B in lifestyle research or as a self-administered measure promoting self-awareness of lifestyle behaviors/attitudes in young adults (18–25 years).