Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Nursing

Advisor

Juan Battle

Committee Members

Steven Baumann

Erica Chido-Childs

Subject Categories

Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Nursing

Keywords

Latinx adults, health promoting behaviors, self-efficacy, disease prevention

Abstract

Background: Minority populations, such as Latinx people, are more likely to develop chronic diseases and increased complications related to disease severity when compared to Non Latinx Whites (NLW). Furthermore, Latinx people are less likely to engage and maintain health promoting behaviors (HPB) to prevent disease development. HPB are effective in preventing or delaying chronic disease. Despite interventions and resources aimed at supporting Latinx populations, often, there are low participation and high attrition rates.

Methods: This research explores the relative impact of aspects of health, built environment and key demographic domains on HMSE of a national sample of Latinx adults through the application of hierarchical regression modeling utilizing data from the 2018 National Survey of Health Attitudes. Additionally, to better understand the unique role of gender, analysis was performed initially for the entire sample and then separately for males and females.

Results: When controlling for all other variables, HMSE of all Latinx people was significantly correlated with various aspects of health, built environment and key demographic variables. Significant gender differences were identified between men and women in all three domains. These differences were particularly apparent by region. For example, Latinx people living in Northeast, Midwest and Western regions were found to have higher levels of HMSE when compared to those living in the South (p≤ .01, p ≤ .05, and p ≤ .05, respectively). However, when split by gender, women were found to only have significantly higher HMSE in the Midwest region (p≤ .01).

Conclusions: Results from this study reveal variables that can influence HMSE in the Latinx population and men and women separately. These findings can be used to develop HMSE that aid in the adoption HPB and reduction of chronic illness in Latinx men and women and reduce gaps in health and social disparities.

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