Critical thinking, perceived health status, and participation in health behaviors.
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.


OBJECTIVE
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.
Settersten
Lori
L
College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 53201, USA. lorisett@uwm.edu
Lauver
Diane Ruth
DR
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D004198:Disease Susceptibility / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking; D014505:Urban Population