Abstract
Background: Critical thinking has been proposed as crucial for processing conflicting information when people make decisions about participation in health behaviors. The critical thinking of individuals about participation in health behaviors may depend on their perceived health status.
Objectives: To examine the relations between critical thinking and participation in three categories of health behaviors, and to determine whether these relations are moderated by perceived health status.
Methods: A cross-sectional, correlational design was used to study a sample of 112 community-dwelling adults who resided in a large, urban Midwest community. The participants were women and men 18 to 90 years of age (mean, 55 +/- 20.47 years) who completed self-report, written questionnaires including the Test of Everyday Reasoning and the Health Practices Instrument.
Results: According to hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the relation between critical thinking and health promotion behaviors and the relation between critical thinking and secondary prevention behaviors were moderated by perceived health status, whereas the relation between critical thinking and health protection behaviors was not.
Conclusions: The relation between critical thinking and participation in health behaviors depends on perceived health status and category of health behaviors. Researchers can explore the role of other variables (e.g., functional status and perceived susceptibility to disease) to explain why perceived health status moderates the relations between critical thinking and participation in various types of health behaviors differently.
Individuals receive information about health and health behaviors from many sources (Jadad & Gagliardi, 1998;Richmond, McCracken, & Broad, 1996). Often, this information is conflicting. Critical thinking skills may be especially crucial for processing such information and for making decisions about participating in health behaviors considering the contradictory nature of such information. Although critical thinking and participation in health behaviors each have been studied separately, the relation between them has not been studied previously.
Participation in selected health behaviors can help to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000). Most Americans do not participate in health behaviors to the extent recommended. For example, during 1997, only 15% of adults ages 18 years and older exercised moderately for 30 minutes three or more times per week (U.S. DHHS).
Numerous variables and theories have been studied in attempts to explain why people participate or do not participate in health behaviors. Because participation in health behaviors is a complex phenomenon, a set of variables and indirect relations has been proposed to explain participation in health behaviors more fully. The influence of critical thinking on health behavior may depend on the particular type of health behavior. In addition, the influence of critical thinking on health behaviors may be moderated by perceived health status.