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

Abstract #108346

Rachel I. Willard¹, Guadalupe X. Ayala, PhD, MPH², Andrea Cherrington, MD³, Kelley DeLeeuw, BS², and E. Schweninger, BA⁴. (1) Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #7400, Rosenau Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-357-1668, rwillard@email.unc.edu, (2) Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, CB #7440, Rosenau Hall 315, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, (3) 5034 Old Clinic Building, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, CB #7105, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, (4) Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, CB #7400, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Fatalismo is a belief that fate or other external forces determine health. Among Latinos, stronger beliefs in fatalismo are associated with less cancer screening behaviors. However little research has examined the relationship of this culturally-specific belief with other types of preventive health behaviors. This study sought to determine whether fatalismo was associated with diet and exercise behaviors.

Forty adult Latino immigrants (mean age=41.05, SD=11.6, 57.5% female) participated in a 45-minute face-to-face interview investigating diet and physical activity, fatalismo, and demographic characteristics. Interviews in Spanish took place at a clinic for low income, medically uninsured individuals.

Fatalismo was measured specific to beliefs about diabetes using six questions with response options from 1= strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree (á = .595) The mean fatalismo score for this sample was 1.83 (SD = .45) suggesting low fatalismo beliefs. In this study, higher fatalismo scores were associated with less fruit consumption (r = -0.328, p < .05). However, contrary to the working hypothesis, fatalismo was not significantly related to vegetable consumption (n.s.), fast food consumption (n.s.) or physical activity (n.s.).

These data suggest that fatalismo may not be related to lifestyle behaviors in the same way as screening behaviors. However, further research is needed on how culturally-specific beliefs influence the health behaviors of Latino immigrants in the U.S.

Learning Objectives:

• Define fatalismo and distinguish it from locus of control
• Describe the relationship of fatalismo to preventive health behaviors such as fruit and vegetable consumption, fast food consumption, and physical activity
• Identify future research needs related to fatalismo

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.