Are small business owners riskier? An I/O evaluation of choices in health and risk factors in a sample of small business owners.

摘要

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) annually collect and report behavioral risk factors that have been labeled as the leading preventable causes of early deaths. Little research has addressed business owners' behavioral risk factor and risk taking propensity jointly. A quantitative analysis utilizing portions of the CDCP Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2005 and 2006 was conducted with small business owners in Savannah, Georgia. In addition, the choice dilemmas questionnaire (CDQ), to identify risk taking propensity in small business owners, was utilized. Previous researchers have noted that small business owners are higher risk takers. This research investigated whether behavioral patterns, which are consistent across personality domains, crossed over to choices made in reported health behaviors. General health, cholesterol check, health care coverage, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, reports of high blood pressure, gender, age, level of education, and length in business venture were measured with Chi-square, Pearson product moment correlation, Spearman rank, Phi correlation, and Analysis of variance.