NU FIT FOR LIFE: A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND SPIRITUALITY ON PERCEIVED HEALTH, SMOKING, AND ALCOHOL USE AMONG SAN FRANCISCO, BAY AREA AFRICAN AMERICANS

Introduction and study purpose: Chronic diseases are more likely to cause premature death and disability for African Americans. Health outcomes are impacted by both individually modifiable risk factors (e.g. alcohol use, tobacco use, physical activity, nutrition, spirituality) and individually non-modifiable risk factors such as covert and overt discrimination, poverty and other social determinants of health. The researchers used a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, Social Cognitive Theory, and an Afro[i]centric focus to study social determinants of health, perceived discrimination, spirituality, and other factors affecting health and healthy lifestyle behaviors, including tobacco and alcohol use in a community sample of obese, sedentary African Americans recruited in the Bay Area for the Nu FIT for Life intervention trial. We hypothesize that perceived discrimination is a factor in predicting poor health among participants at baseline and that there are differences in health lifestyle behaviors in persons who perceive discrimination versus those who do not. We also hypothesize that spirituality is a factor in predicting the health of participants at baseline and that there are differences in persons who rate themselves as spiritual or religious, versus those who do not. Our main outcome measures were tobacco smoking, alcohol use, and perceived health. Methods: The study variables were assessed during face-to-face 30–45-minute interviews at baseline. We used a cross sectional research design utilizing logistic regression and multiple linear regression to analyze the data for these variables. Results: In a sample of 303 African American adults, women were less likely to smoke than men, B= -.898, SE=.432, Wald=4.312, p=.038, and, as religiosity/spirituality increased, the probability of smoking decreased, B= -.553, SE=.228, Wald=5.873, p=.015. Those with greater religiosity/spirituality were also less likely to drink alcohol, B= -.408, SE=.183, Wald=4.945, p=.026. Gender contributed to the perceived health status outcome model, B= -.514, 95% C.I.(-.846, -.182) p <.05, R2 value of .052 – only 5.2% of the variation in this model can be explained by gender alone. Conclusions: In our sample selected for obesity and sedentary behavior, religiosity/spirituality was protective against smoking and alcohol consumption. Female gender was protective against smoking and for perceived health