Predicting intentions to engage in cancer prevention and detection behaviors: Examining differences between Black and White adults

Abstract

Reducing cancer-related mortality rates can be achieved by increasing cancer screening rates and by increasing the number of people who engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors. This study uses the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IM; Fishbein, 2000) to examine differences between Blacks and Whites in the US in the degree to which attitudes, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and normative pressure contribute to predicting intentions to engage in three cancer screening behaviors (mammogram, colonoscopy and PSA test) and three healthy lifestyle behaviors (controlling ones diet to lose weight, eating fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly). Prior research has demonstrated that these behaviors are effective at reducing incidence and mortality rates for some cancers. Results indicated that for Blacks intentions to engage in all behaviors were driven by PBC. Patterns were more varied for Whites and indicated that normative pressure was a particularly important determinant of screening intentions whereas attitudes were most strongly associated with dieting intentions. Results suggest that interventions targeting these behaviors should be tailored by behavior and by ethnicity.

Keywords:

• neoplasm
• behavior
• health promotion
• psychology; social
• ethnic

Acknowledgements

We thank Robert Hornik and Stacy Gray for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this manuscript, and Michael Hennessey who assisted with statistical analyses. We are also grateful to the Seeking and Scanning research group at the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research for developing and conducting the survey research that produced the data analyzed here. Anca Romantan led the development of the survey instrument. Preparation of this manuscript was made possible by grant number 5P50CA095856-03 from the National Cancer Institute. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCI or the National Institutes of Health.

Notes

1. Controlling for education, household income and having internet access in the home before becoming a member of the Knowledge Networks panel did not change the pattern of regression coefficients or significance tests of the comparisons between coefficients. We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this analysis.