Health promotion practices of smoking and non-smoking black women

This descriptive study utilized Pender's Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) to survey a sample of Black women age 18 and older who attended three churches located in the southcentral United States. The prevalence of cigarette smoking is increasing among females, and Black females are at greater risk for complications related to smoking than are their White counterparts. The purpose of this study was to describe the health promotion practices of Black women who smoke cigarettes and those who do not smoke cigarettes. If differences were identified in the health promotion practices of these two groups, the findings would provide a basis for developing a plan for overall health promotion specifically tailored for Black women who smoke. The data analysis revealed no significant difference between the HPLP and subscale mean scores of the smokers and non-smokers. Scores were higher on a minimum of five subscales and the overall HPLP for women > 40, those with some college level education, or having annual household incomes of > $20,000, regardless of smoking status. MANOVA results revealed significant main effects of age on three subscales. Two-way ANOVA's revealed significant main effects of age and household income on HPLP scores. The results in this study indicate that education is the strongest predictor of health promoting behavior. Other demographic variables such as age and household income accounted for a variance in the subscale categories and overall HPLP scores. Nursing interventions with a health promotion focus must be developed with an emphasis on Black women who are younger than 40, those having a high school or lower educational level, and those in the lower socioeconomic class.