Sa. Lockery et Ep. Stanford, PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY AND SMOKING - GENDER COMPARISONS AMONG OLDER AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADULTS, Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 7(3), 1996, pp. 232-251
Citations number
45
Categorie Soggetti
Social Work","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
Little effort has been expended on the examination of systematic healt
h risk behaviors among adult African Americans by gender. Using data f
rom the national Health and Retirement Study (HRS) this article compar
es differences between male and female physical activity and smoking b
ehaviors of African Americans aged 50 to 61. The analysis highlights a
clear pattern of socioeconomic differences with current male smokers,
who are more likely to be unmarried and in the lower income and educa
tional levels. Among women, the relationship between smoking patterns,
income, and education is less definitive and consistent. Our findings
, confirmed by earlier studies, indicate that the largest percentage o
f the study population, both male and female, are not engaged in any f
orm of regular physical exercise, Thus human service providers must be
more attentive to gender and sociodemographic differences in smoking
habits and patterns of physical activities to tailor policies and prog
rams accordingly.