African American women's self-regulation of health

Few researchers have examined high blood pressure perceptions among African American women and how these perceptions influence health behaviors such as diet and exercise. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between high blood pressure perceptions and lifestyle behaviors (exercise and diet) among African American women with hypertension. Leventhal's Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation proposes that people develop lay views of illness by processing key factors related to the disease. These lay views, referred to as representations, drive health behavior. Using a descriptive cross sectional design, 204 African American women, 18--65 years old, with a diagnosis of hypertension were recruited from five churches and one hair salon. High blood pressure illness perceptions were assessed using the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire. Physical activity was assessed using the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall and fruit and vegetable dietary intake was assessed using the Fruit and Vegetable Quick Food Scan. Demographics, blood pressure, heart rate, BMI, and waist/hip ratios were also collected.;After controlling for age, income, and BMI, hierarchical regression revealed that emotional perceptions of high blood pressure were significantly related to fruit and vegetable intake (beta = .28, p = .003). A significantly negative relationship was found between timeline (beta = -.15) and environmental cause (beta = -.25) and moderate intensity physical activity. These findings indicate that women reporting longer duration of high blood pressure and more environmental causes of high blood pressure reported less moderate intensity physical activity. There was a significant positive relationship between emotional representations (beta =.23) and moderate intensity physical activity which revealed that women reporting more emotional representations reported more moderate intensity physical activity. Findings suggest that African American women can benefit from high blood pressure cognitive restructuring interventions focused on changing maladaptive illness beliefs. For example, clinicians can cognitively restructure perceptions of the chronic and inevitable nature of HBP by demonstrating the beneficial effects of exercise and diet to the body to promote self-management of disease.