Other possibilities include an interaction effect between race and socioeconomic status and the exposure to financial chronic strain that might lead to engagement in unhealthy behaviors as mechanisms to cope with poverty. The main purpose of this research is to test these possibilities, as well as to determine the extent to which the race-health behaviors link is consistent across different measures of socioeconomic status. Logistic regression is used to calculate the risk of obesity, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and being considered a heavy smoker . Ordinary least squares is used to analyze differences in body mass index and frequency of drinking alcohol. The results of this research show that both race and socioeconomic status exert a strong influence on obesity, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption.
Race is a particularly strong predictor of obesity, while SES heavily influences cigarette smoking.
Both race and SES are moderate predictors of alcohol consumption. Financial chronic strain is also a predictor of obesity and smoking. In addition, the race and class interaction appears to be only marginally predictive of health behaviors. Finally, education emerges as the most consistent, and robust, measure of socioeconomic status in relation to obesity, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption.