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Increasing concern over rapidly rising health care costs is evident in the popular media as well as in the health care and business literature. Health care expenditures in the United States rose to 12.2% of the U.S. Gross National Product (GNP) in 1990 and are expected to reach 16.2% by the year 2000 (Levit and Cowan 1991). As the population ages, the demand for health care services will accelerate, exerting tremendous additional pressure on available resources (Self and Wilkinson 1990).
One approach to moderating such demands on the health care system is the promotion of healthy lifestyles. In this article, we explore the concept of "wellness" as a set of personal activities, interests, and opinions related to one's health. Individuals who pursue a wellness lifestyle are concerned with their nutrition and physical fitness. They try to manage the stress in their lives and are sensitive to health hazards in the environment. This new psychological scale measures the orientation of individuals toward a wellness lifestyle. The resulting Wellness Scale could be useful to health care marketers in segmenting markets, targeting promotions, and positioning products and services.
THE WELLNESS LIFESTYLE
Great progress has been made in improving the health of the American public. The life expectancy of the average American has increased by almost four years since 1970. Nevertheless, when numerous indicators, such as the incidence of cardiovascular disease or diabetes, are compared with those of other Western nations, the U.S. compares unfavorably with about half of them. The director of the Office of Disease Prevention argues persuasively that an opportunity remains for substantial improvement in the level of American health (McGinnis 1990).
Research dating from the middle 1970s indicates that factors contributing to the 10 leading causes of death are largely attributable to "lifestyle," daily consumption behavior, and other activities of individuals (White 1986). For example, over 80o of all deaths from heart disease are caused by fatty diets, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, and cigarette smoking (Havas et al. 1989).
The much-quoted Healthy People: The Surgeon General's Report on Health promotion and Disease Prevention (DHEW 1979) emphasized the need for focusing on prevention as a means of raising the level of health of our society (Jaffe This means the public must abandon the common...