Lifestyle is a broad term that encompasses a person’s interests, opinions, values, attitudes, and behavioural orientations. It also includes the patterns of behaviour and choices made on a daily basis. These behaviours are usually related to the environment in which the person lives. A person’s lifestyle can have a profound impact on their health, particularly in terms of diet and exercise.
A healthy lifestyle consists of regular and sustained behaviours that support well-being. These behaviours may be physical, emotional or mental. They are generally in accordance with an individual’s values and goals. A person’s lifestyle can be determined by a number of factors, including age, location, occupation, family, and culture.
The concept of lifestyle has been extensively researched in both psychological and sociological literature. Depending on the aim of research, there are three main interpretations of this construct: internal, external and temporal (see Table 1).
Internal and psychological definitions of lifestyle tend to emphasise personality traits, as opposed to external factors such as values, attitudes and behavioural orientations. This approach is criticised for placing too much importance on personality traits and ignoring the fact that these traits are often influenced by environmental influences.
Other research in this area uses the concept of lifestyle as a way to examine social structure and the relative positions of individuals within it. Thorstein Veblen opened this line of inquiry with his concept of ‘schemes of life’, asserting that people adopt specific patterns of conspicuous consumption in order to distinguish themselves from those whom they identify as being inferior and to elicit the prestige that they believe they deserve. Max Weber developed this idea further by defining the characteristics of status groups as the most visible manifestation of the distinction between different classes, based on the perceptions of prestige that they enjoy or aspire to.
The research in the sociological field emphasises that lifestyle is a combination of tangible and intangible elements, with the former being a function of demographic variables and the latter of social and cultural conditions. It is therefore necessary to analyse each factor in order to determine how it influences lifestyle. For example, the location of a person’s residence has an important influence on their lifestyle, which can be defined in relation to the cultural and natural environment in which they live.
Finally, sociomedical and health psychology research defines the concept of a healthy lifestyle in terms of the presence or absence of certain behavioural patterns associated with risk factors for disease. The importance of this topic is underlined by the fact that the current healthcare system focuses on promoting lifestyle changes as part of its prevention strategy. These changes can be triggered by targeted public education campaigns. It is worth noting, however, that a healthy lifestyle should not be seen as a rigid and fixed pattern of behaviours, as the concept should include the flexibility required for an individual to adapt their lifestyle according to changing circumstances and needs.
