Abstract
BackgroundThe purpose of this research was to examine the relationships of self-reported physical activity to involvement with messages that discuss the prevention of heart disease and breast cancer through physical activity, the explicit believability of the messages, and agreement (or disagreement) with specific statements about the messages or disease beliefs in general.MethodsA within subjects’ design was used. Participants (N = 96) read either a breast cancer or heart disease message first, then completed a corresponding task that measured agreement or disagreement and confidence in the agreement or disagreement that 1) physical activity ‘reduces risk/does not reduce risk’ of breast cancer or heart disease, 2) that breast cancer or heart disease is a ‘real/not real risk for me’, 3) that women who get breast cancer or heart disease are ‘like/not like me’, and 4) that women who get breast cancer or heart disease are ‘to blame/not to blame’. This task was followed by a questionnaire measuring message involvement and explicit believability. They then read the other disease messages and completed the corresponding agreement and confidence task and questionnaire measures. Lastly, participants completed a questionnaire measuring physical activity related attitudes and intentions, and demographics.ResultsThere was no difference in message involvement or explicit believability of breast cancer compared to heart disease messages. Active participants had a higher confidence in their agreement that physical activity is preventive of heart disease compared to breast cancer. Multinomial regression models showed that, in addition to physical activity related attitudes and intentions, agreement that physical activity was preventive of heart disease and that women with heart disease are ‘like me’ were predictors of being more active compared to inactive. In the breast cancer model only attitudes and intentions predicted physical activity group.ConclusionsActive women likely internalized messages about heart disease prevention through physical activity, making the prevention messages more readily available within memory, and active women may therefore process such information differently. The study of how health-related beliefs are created and are related to perceptions of prevention messages is a rich area of study that may contribute to more effective health promotion.
Highlights
The purpose of this research was to examine the relationships of self-reported physical activity to involvement with messages that discuss the prevention of heart disease and breast cancer through physical activity, the explicit believability of the messages, and agreement with specific statements about the messages or disease beliefs in general
Demographics Incomplete data from three participants were not used, and one participant diagnosed with heart disease and breast cancer was omitted from the analysis, leaving a final sample of 96 who ranged in age from 18 to 80 years
There were no differences between order of reading and measures in any demographic variable, nor in involvement with the heart disease or breast cancer messages, heart disease or breast explicit believability or physical activity belief confidence index, affective attitudes, intentions, or Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) group
Summary
The purpose of this research was to examine the relationships of self-reported physical activity to involvement with messages that discuss the prevention of heart disease and breast cancer through physical activity, the explicit believability of the messages, and agreement (or disagreement) with specific statements about the messages or disease beliefs in general. The work presented here investigated the believability of messages that promote physical activity as preventive of heart disease and breast cancer and how believability may be related to physical activity related attitudes, intentions, and behavior. Others have shown that believability of graphic images on cigarette packages is related to increased risk perception and reduced desire to smoke [5], that the majority of students disbelieved messages to reduce binge drinking and disbelief was related to drinking more alcohol and reporting more hangovers than those who believed the message [6], and that believability of hand washing statistics is related to attitudes toward the behavior [7]. There is evidence that general believability of health messages is related to attitudes and should be considered when examining health promotion or prevention messages
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