Measuring cultural variables and implication for health behavioral frameworks

The theory of planned behavior is a reliable framework used in predicting several health behaviors. However, the success of this framework is limited when applied to diverse population groups. One highly diverse population group is the Hispanic population. Hispanic population diversity varies according to numerous cultural-identifying variables such as race, socio-economic status, immigration and other self-identifiers. The identification of Hispanic cultural variables may assist in locating how and why health behavioral decision differences occur within the Hispanic population. Findings from a secondary-data analysis identify culturally associated variables and present how they can be measured, controlled and applied to the theory of planned behavior. Data used in this secondary analysis were collected in the past five years during HIV testing of a large sample of New York City area Hispanics at a community-based AIDS advocacy organization, the Latino Commission on AIDS. By developing consistency to varying Hispanic ethnicity cultural variables and discussing them through a social determinant lens provides possible strategies for improving HIV testing opportunities in Hispanic population groups and corrects several known limitations to the theory of planned behavior.