Ethnic identity and health information avoidance: Moderation by self-affirmation.

Area of Science:

• Health Psychology
• Medical Sociology
• Genomic Medicine

Background:

• Health information avoidance can delay disease detection and diagnosis.
• Ethnic identity may influence health information avoidance in individuals of African descent.
• Historical medical mistrust may complicate the relationship between ethnic identity and health information avoidance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the association between ethnic identity and health information avoidance.
• To investigate the moderating effect of spontaneous self-affirmation on this association.
• To explore these factors within an African descent cohort in an exome sequencing study (ClinSeq).

Main Methods:

• 407 participants of African, African American, or Afro-Caribbean descent completed baseline assessments.
• Measures included ethnic identity engagement, self-affirmation tendency, and health information avoidance.
• A moderation model was tested using Hayes PROCESS macro, controlling for age, sex, education, and income.

Main Results:

• A significant interaction was found: ethnic identity was positively associated with health information avoidance only when self-affirmation was low (b = -.25, p = .03).
• This suggests a moderating effect of self-affirmation on the relationship between ethnic identity and health information avoidance.
• No other associations were statistically significant.

Conclusions:

• Spontaneous self-affirmation may mitigate health information avoidance in individuals of African descent with high ethnic identity engagement.
• Future research should consider ethnic identity and self-affirmation as key factors in health information avoidance.
• These findings have implications for health communication and interventions targeting diverse populations.