Subjective social status and health behaviors among African Americans

Objectives: To examine associations of the US and community subjective social status (SSS) ladders with smoking status, at-risk drinking, fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and body mass index among 1467 church-going African American adults from a larger cohort study. Methods: Regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographics, examined associations between SSS ladders and health behaviors. Results: The SSSUS ladder was significantly associated with fruit and vegetable consumption (p = .007) and physical activity (p = .005). The SSS-community ladder was not significantly associated with any health behaviors. Conclusions: Among this sample of African Americans, the SSS-US ladder is more predictive of some health behaviors than is the SSS-community ladder. Copyright (c) PNG Publications. All rights reserved.