Life-Style and Cardiovascular Health Among Urban Black Elderly

Abstract

This study assessed life-style behaviors in a cross-sectional random sample of urban Black elderly with and without cardiovascular disease. Those with cardiac disease reported behavior modifications for salt mtake, fat intake, and smoking but more often reported being overweight and performing less exercise than did those elderly without cardiac disease. There remains substantial room for improvement in health maintenance and health promotion behaviors in this population, suggesting the need of intensive educational interventions. Additionally, Black elderly with cardiac disease had worse scores on a depression scale and a health locus-of-control question, suggesting the need for psychological assessment and intervention in this population.

A Community-Oriented Primary Care Demonstration Project: Refining Interventions for Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes

“…20 Whereas the health locus of control model has been applied to African American communities in a variety of settings, there are fewer studies of its use in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. [21][22][23][24][25][26] This article provides information about participation in protective health behaviors (physical activity and diet), health locus of control, and stage of readiness to change in an African American community. We discuss how quantitative and qualitative analyses of these data have been used to refi ne existing community-based health promotion interventions in our COPC project.…”