Throughout the years, lifestyle has become a key concept in scientific research and has been associated with various health-related behaviours. Nevertheless, there is no unambiguous definition of lifestyle and the concepts differ widely between different fields of knowledge. Consequently, there is a risk that different theories and research variables are being developed for this concept, making the results of these studies hard to compare.
In the field of health, a healthy lifestyle is generally described as a set of activities and habits that encourage total physical, mental, and spiritual fitness, and reduces the risk of major illnesses (e.g., regular exercise, a balanced diet with adequate amounts of nutrients and minerals, moderate use of alcohol, avoiding tobacco and unnecessary drugs). This definition is broad and comprehensive, but the specific characteristics that make up a healthy lifestyle are complex and variable from one person to another.
There are three main interpretative keys to this construct that are based on the internal, external, and temporal aspects of lifestyle. These key elements are formulated by several currents in the literature, such as psychological and sociological perspectives.
Psychological research considers that lifestyle consists of the different ways in which people try to satisfy their needs, needs for self-realisation, and the need for social recognition. It is also possible to distinguish between individualist and collectivist lifestyles and between different life stages (e.g., adolescence and adulthood).
Sociological research identifies different lifestyles in terms of a person’s status within a certain social class. These models analyse the way in which these behaviours can differentiate a group from other social strata and determine its prestige, as well as how these lifestyles can be changed through processes of identification, differentiation, and recognition. Thorstein Veblen opens this perspective with his ‘conspicuous consumption’ theory, while Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu develop it by analysing the role of lifestyles in the process of socialisation into a particular social class.
Moreover, the concept of lifestyle is also linked to the person’s attitudes, values and worldview. This approach is particularly common in the field of health promotion and has been developed by authors such as Rokeach and Jenkins. This type of approach considers the ways in which a lifestyle may be used to promote a healthier behaviour, or to encourage a more active participation in society. Nonetheless, these theories are limited in that they do not consider the influence of the wider environment. This is why it is important to create a more holistic explanatory model for the lifestyle concept. In this article, we aim to bring together the different approaches that define and explore this concept, in order to provide a more complete overview of its complexity. This will allow us to propose a more integrated model of lifestyle and its potential influence on health-related behaviours.