Diabetes knowledge, fatalism and type 2 diabetes-preventive behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of college students

Abstract

Objective This study examined diabetes knowledge, health fatalism (the belief that health outcomes are outside one’s control), and their interaction, as predictors of Type 2 Diabetes preventive behavior. Participants: Ethnically diverse college students (N = 345) without prior diagnosis of diabetes. Methods: Cross-sectional design using validated self-report measures. Results: Respondents answered approximately half of the diabetes knowledge items correctly. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were not predicted by diabetes knowledge, fatalism, or their interaction. Higher diabetes knowledge was associated with a healthier diet among individuals with low fatalism. Greater fatalism was associated with a poorer diet among individuals with moderate or high diabetes knowledge. Conclusions: Diabetes knowledge was moderate in this college student sample. Greater knowledge was linked with a healthier diet among those with sense of personal control over their health. College health educators may consider emphasizing modifiability of health behaviors in conjunction with Type 2 diabetes education efforts.

Keywords:

• College students
• diabetes knowledge
• fatalism
• health behavior
• Type 2 diabetes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Jacqueline Hernandez, Bridget Hidalgo, Stephany Ortiz Chavez, and Carlos Villalobos for their help with data collection and management. The authors thank Dr. Silvia Santos and Dr. Tara Victor for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflict of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the IRB of California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CSUDH Graduate Equity Fellowship; 2017–2018 CSUDH Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity grant program; CSUDH Graduate Writing Institute for Excellence under the 2014–2019 Title V-PPOHA-#P031M140041 grant.