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Knowledge of Family History of Coronary Heart Disease, Medical Insurance and Annual Visitations to Healthcare Professionals among individuals of African Ancestry
Author(s) -
Davis Errol,
Huffman Fatma
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.735.13
Subject(s) - health professionals , demography , medicine , family history , affect (linguistics) , health care , coronary heart disease , disease , gerontology , family medicine , psychology , political science , sociology , communication , law
Objective To investigate the differences in knowledge of family history of CHD (KFHCHD), medical insurance coverage (MIC) and annual visitations to a healthcare professional (HCP) in Foreign‐born Afro Caribbeans (FBAC: 31 males; 35 females) living in the US for less than 10 years, US‐born Afro Caribbean Americans (USBACA: 30 males; 32 females) and African Americans (AA: 30 males; 31 females) ages 18‐40 years in a cross‐sectional analysis. Socio‐demographic data were collected and analyzed. Results More FBAC than USBACA and AA participants (39.4% vs. 25.8% and 31.1%) had KFHCHD. More FBAC than USBAC and AA participants had MIC (71.2% vs. 69.4% and 67.2%) whereas, more FBAC and USBACA than AA participants (80.3% and 85.5% vs. 73.8%) reported visiting a HCP during the past year. Conclusions Our study showed that there are differences in KFHCHD, MIC and annual visitations to HCPs among individuals of African decent. Knowledge of CHD risk factors and MIC are important tools in changing behavior towards health. However, to affect lasting behavioral change, the dissemination of nutrition information should be culturally appropriate.