Clusters of heath behaviours

Latent class analysis, based on the prevalence of smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and quality of diet, identified three distinct groups of young people:

1. The ‘unhealthy smokers and drinkers’ (21 per cent of 17-year-olds), who had the highest level of alcohol consumption, were daily or occasional smokers, had moderate to low levels of physical activity and poor to moderate dietary quality.
2. The ‘unhealthy diet and physical activity’ group (36 per cent of 17-year-olds), who did not smoke, drank alcohol rarely (monthly or less) but had the worst levels of physical activity (just 1-2 days in the previous fortnight) and had the poorest dietary quality.
3. The remaining ‘healthy’ group (43 per cent) did not smoke, drank rarely, engaged in exercise on six or more days in the previous fortnight and had the best quality diet.