Research

Current Research by Dr. Peter Pribis

Lifestyle and Quality of Life in a Health Conscious Population

A Comparison of SF-36 between Seventh-day Adventist and Age-Matched Population.

Abstract

As the aged population of industrialized countries increase, studies of lifestyle, diet and disease in older persons are becoming more frequent. Previous studies on Seventh-day Adventists have reported decreased prevalence of chronic disease, medication use, and health services use (Knutsen, 1994). Further, it was reported that choices regarding diet, exercise, cigarette smoking and body weight can account for differences of up to 10 years of life expectancy among Adventists (Fraser & Shavlik, 2001). Seventh-day Adventists represent a unique population with decreased morbidity, mortality and increased life expectancy (Beeson, Mills, Phillips, Andress & Fraser, 1989).

Objective

The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life in Adventist population aged 65 years or older.

Methods

Lifestyle and dietary habits will be assets with a modified version of the Harvard food frequency questionnaire (Morris, Tangney, Bienias, Evans & Wilson, 2003). Self-experienced health and quality of life will be assets by SF-36 questionnaire (Ware & Gandek, 1998). Quality of life (SF-36) scores will be compared between the study population and a selected age-matched population.