Health-promoting behaviors of African American women.

Limited information exists concerning health behaviors of African American women. The purposes of this study were to describe health-promoting lifestyle behaviors among a sample of 187 African American women and to compare findings to other published reports on the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) instrument. Subscales with the highest means in this study were interpersonal support and self-actualization. However, when compared to reports of HPLP scores for other groups, total HPLP and subscale scores of women in this study were generally lower. Readability and applicability of the HPLP instrument may affect its validity and reliability in a diverse sample.