Effects of unhealthy lifestyle

A logistic regression analysis is used to measure the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle on how people rate their own health. By means of a logistic regression analysis, the effect of one or more explanatory variables on a dichotomous explanatory variable can be measured. This survey evaluates how age, gender and suffering from a particular chronic disorder affect people’s perception of their own health. With respect to lifestyle (combinations), smoking, heavy drinking and not taking enough exercise are evaluated and all possible combinations thereof. In a logistic regression analysis, the explanatory variables are evaluated separately or corrected for the effects of the other variables.

One of the results of this analysis is the so-called “Odds Ratios”. Within an explanatory variable, these “Odds Ratios” represent the risk per category of having versus not having a perceived less good health relative to another category. For example: the risk of perceiving one’s own health as less good for smokers versus that risk for non-smokers.