Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #102398

Deirdra Chester, PhD, RD, LD/N, Community Nutrition Research Group, USDA, ARS, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Bldg. 005, Room 117, Beltsville, MD 20705, 301-504-0617, chesterd@ba.ars.usda.gov

Public health data show that African-Americans have not adopted health-promoting behaviors of diet and exercise. This study focused on spirituality as it relates to the health promoting behaviors of diet and exercise. African-American women (n=286) residing in Florida completed questionnaires: Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, Brief Block Food Frequency, and socio-demographic information. This cross-sectional study used socio-demographic, anthropometric, dietary, exercise and spirituality data to answer the two primary questions of the study: What is the role of spirituality in impacting the health promoting behaviors (diet and exercise) of African-American women? What are the predictors of diet and exercise? Spirituality plays an important role in the lives of African-American women as it relates to their health promoting behaviors. When identifying the “best predictors” initially each dependent variable was examined using Hierarchical Regression. Predictors varied per variable. Diet was significantly associated with education, stress management, and health responsibility. Physical activity was significantly associated with education and stress management. A more holistic look uses the canonical correlations. The variables that are “good predictors” of diet and exercise in African-Americans were the following: individuals with good nutrition, increased physical activity, and healthy eating habits had better levels of stress management, better health responsibility, higher spiritual growth, better interpersonal relations, more education, and higher self-esteem. Health promoting intervention protocols with African-American women should focus on ways to improve the stress management, health responsibility, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and self-esteem of participants along with a message of diet and exercise.

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