Health consciousness and pro-environmental behaviors in an Italian representative sample: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Individual behavior is one of the most influential factors affecting both environmental change and chronic disease development. To encourage behaviors bringing about environmental and health co-benefits, it is important to understand the underlying factors of behavior change for healthy and sustainable lifestyles. One area of potential overlap concerns people's health consciousness. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between health consciousness and pro-environmental behavior. We investigated whether health consciousness correlates with five clusters of pro-environmental behaviors: sustainable food consumption, recycling, green purchasing, sustainable mobility, and energy saving. Research data were collected via cross-sectional survey involving a representative sample of 1001 Italian citizens. Statistically significant differences emerged in the frequency of the different classes of pro-environmental behaviors: Italians most frequently implement sustainable behaviors related to energy saving and recycling while sustainable mobility behaviors are the least implemented. Moreover, stepwise linear regression model demonstrated the predictive role of citizens’ health consciousness on the adoption of specific classes of pro-environmental behaviors showing how higher involvement in one’s own health determines higher levels of pro-environmental behaviors. This evidence highlights the importance of creating educational interventions and campaigns to increase involvement in health in order to rise pro-environmental behaviors.