Health-related Quality of Life and Health-Promoting Behaviors in Black Men

Engagement in health-promoting behaviors has been a topic of concern to social workers since Jane Addams's involvement with the settlement house movement (Marshall & Altpeter, 2005). According to NASW (2005b), the profession should educate clients about disease prevention. The profession's involvement on interdisciplinary public health teams aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of conditions such as teenage pregnancy, cancer, and HIV/ AIDS is well documented (Marshall & Altpeter, 2005). Although prior research within the field of social work has identified that health-promotion behaviors can help decrease overall health care expenditures and are needed for vulnerable populations (Icard, Bourjolly, & Siddiqui, 2003; NASW, 2005b), the focus on the health-promotion needs of low-income black men has received minimal attention. Research consistently demonstrates the health disparities experienced by black men in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010; Office of Minority Health, 2006; U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group, 2009). This group has the lowest life expectancy of all racial or ethnic groups in the United States (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], 2010), with a life expectancy of 69.7 years, compared with 75.7 for white men (Heron et al., 2009). Although statistics provide the quantitative data to support disparate health conditions among black men, incidence and prevalence data fail to describe an individual's functional status and individual health perceptions. To date, topics of health disparity and health promotion focused on black men have not garnered significant research, despite the glaring disparities experienced by black men (Gadson, 2006). There is indication that black men are eager to learn of health-promotion practices (Heeren & Jemmott, 2011), but barriers to health promotion for this population exist. Researchers have found a regular source of medical care is predictive of receipt of preventive services, including secondary prevention interventions, such as screenings for hypertension, diabetes, and prostate cancer, three conditions from which black people, especially black men, suffer disproportionately compared with their white counterparts (Merzel & Moon-Howard, 2002). In addition to having a regular source of care, increases in health promotion activities, such as participating in routine health exams, are related to exposure to other men who support health promotion (Hammond, Matthews, & Corbie-Smith, 2010). HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE Although traditional measures of mortality and morbidity (that is, incidence and prevalence data) provide valid and reliable health indicators, they are not reflective of a person's ability to participate in usual activities and do not adequately assess a person's overall sense of well-being (Chowdhury, Balluz, & Strine, 2008). This sense of well-being is referred to as health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and is defined as the perception of one's physical and mental health over time (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HSS], 2000). Compared with the objective information obtained from lab tests and even a physical examination, HRQOL provides a more thorough assessment of a person's health because it focuses on the person's perceptions of his or her health. Engaging in health-promoting behaviors can improve one's overall HRQOL. Although social workers frequently assess HRQOL when determining the effects of an illness on all facets of a person's life, Dempster and Donnelly (2000) recommend social workers assess clients' HRQOL using a valid and reliable instrument, particularly when working in the community. Since 1993, the CDC has included HRQOL measures in the annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (CDC, 1994). Underscoring the importance of HRQOL is the inclusion of HRQOL as one of the new topic areas in Healthy People 2020 (HealthyPeople. …