 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Sheryl Thorburn Bird, PhD, MPH, Department of Public Health, Oregon State University, 264 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-6406, 541-737-9493, Sheryl.Bird@oregonstate.edu and Laura M. Bogart, PhD, RAND Health, RAND Corporation, 1700 Main Street P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
Beliefs that contraception and family planning programs are part of a genocidal conspiracy against African Americans have been observed. Yet, little empirical work has examined African Americans’ endorsement of conspiracy beliefs about birth control or the relationship of such beliefs to contraceptive attitudes and behavior. We are currently conducting a cross-sectional telephone survey with a national, random sample of 500+ African Americans, aged 15-44. The interview includes questions about birth control conspiracy beliefs (14 items; alpha = .80). Preliminary results for the first 373 respondents indicate that many endorsed the beliefs. For example, 39% agreed that “Medical and public health institutions use poor and minority people as guinea pigs to try out new birth control methods” and 22% agreed that “The government’s family planning policies are intended to control the number of Black people.” Stronger beliefs were associated with less positive attitudes toward condoms and other contraceptive methods (rs ranged from -.18 to -.45; all ps < .001) and lower intention to use birth control (r = -.18, p < .01). Stronger beliefs were also associated with never having visited a health care provider for contraceptive services (r = -.24, p < .001) and lower intention to seek such services (r = -.15, p < .01). Among those using birth control, stronger beliefs were associated with not using a health care provider-dependent method (r = -.16, p < .05). These results suggest that stronger conspiracy beliefs are related to more negative attitudes toward contraceptive methods and to contraceptive behavior among African Americans.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Contraception, African American
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.