a Department of Psychological Sciences , University of Connecticut , Storrs , Connecticut , USA.
b Department of Health Disparities , MD Anderson Cancer Center , Unit 1440, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center , Houston , Texas , USA.
Psychol Health. 2018 Nov;33(11):1416-1429. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2018.1510932. Epub 2018 Nov 19.
Educational attainment is increasingly recognised as a unique dimension of socioeconomic status (SES) and a powerful determinant of health behaviour-and thus physical health and mortality. However, very little is known about the specific pathways through which education influences these health behaviours.
The present study used a nationally representative US survey to test three potential psychosocial pathways (perceived control, health literacy and social support) through which education might influence intake of fruits and vegetables (FV), physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB), controlling for other aspects of SES (income, health insurance status) and demographics (age, gender, race/ethnicity).
Both aspects of perceived control (locus of control, cancer fatalism) mediated the impact of education on FV and PA while only locus of control mediated the impact of education on SB. Further, only one aspect of health literacy (ability to understand recommendations) mediated education's effect on any health behaviour (FV). Social support did not mediate any of the effects of education on health behaviors.
Future work explicitly assessing and testing these mediational pathways is needed to better understand how education influences people's health behaviours throughout their lives.
教育程度越来越被认为是社会经济地位(SES)的独特维度,也是健康行为的重要决定因素,进而影响身体健康和死亡率。然而,人们对教育通过哪些具体途径影响这些健康行为知之甚少。
本研究使用具有全国代表性的美国调查数据,检验了三种潜在的心理社会途径(控制感、健康素养和社会支持),以探讨教育可能通过这些途径影响水果和蔬菜摄入(FV)、身体活动(PA)和久坐行为(SB),同时控制 SES 的其他方面(收入、健康保险状况)和人口统计学因素(年龄、性别、种族/民族)。
控制感的两个方面(控制源、癌症宿命论)中介了教育对 FV 和 PA 的影响,而只有控制源中介了教育对 SB 的影响。此外,只有健康素养的一个方面(理解建议的能力)中介了教育对任何健康行为(FV)的影响。社会支持并没有中介教育对健康行为的任何影响。
需要进一步研究明确评估和检验这些中介途径,以更好地理解教育如何影响人们一生的健康行为。