Exploring mechanisms between Religiosity and Health Behaviors in African American Women

Background: Current interventions with African American (AA) women show less weight loss overall, and lower maintenance over time compared to other populations. There is great interest in culturally adapting evidence based interventions to increase effectiveness for AA populations. Seventy percent of Black women report living a religious life is important compared to 57% White women. As a result, faith is a primary adaptation for weight loss programs among AA women. While a positive relationship between faith and health has been established, how the relationship works is still being understood. In this study, the possible mediating effects of motivation on the relationship between religion and health behavior was examined. Methods: Baseline data from the Better Me Within (BMW) program (P20MD006882) was used for this study. Religion was measured by the spiritual health locus of control (SHLOC) survey that includes passive and active subscales. The active subscale refers to those who have a belief that God is a partner in health and are hypothesized to have more positive health behaviors, whereas those with a passive score show fatalistic beliefs (e.g., health is in God’s hands) and are expected to engage in less positive health behaviors. However, other variables may play a role in this relationship such as motivation. This study evaluated means and standard deviations, and calculated simple correlations between SHLOC, motivation for physical activity and minutes of physical activity (PA). Simple linear regression models were run to evaluate the influence of SHLOC and health behaviors (e.g. PA) on motivation. Results: A total of 158 participants were included in this analysis (Mean Age=48.9 ± 11.68, Body Mass Index (BMI)=38.15 ± 9.71 Waist circumference (WC) =43.04 ± 5.88). The majority of participant had some education after high school (80%). Participants also showed high active SHLOC (Mean=35.47 ± 7.48, max score = 44). Motivation for PA was positively and significantly correlated with active SHLOC (0.16, p Conclusions: Results show having a more passive (fatalistic) view of health is associated with higher levels of motivation for PA. While this seems illogical, it does offer opportunities for alternative explanations. Self efficacy (Confidence for Exercise and PANSE) may be driving the relationship between motivation for PA and SHLOC. More work is needed to understand the mediators between faith and health. If self efficacy is more influential in this relationship, then adapting interventions to focus on self efficacy rather than faith may be beneficial to lifestyle interventions for AA women.