HEALTH PROMOTION AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN ELDERLY BLACK ADULTS: AN ARTICLE CRITIQUE
This research critiques an article ("Health Promotion and Life Satisfaction in Elderly Black Adults") by Miriam F. Foster. The first impression the reader obtains from this article is one of redundancy in the title. What, other than adults, would one expect elderly blacks to be? Why not, then, simply elderly blacks? Nevertheless, this article is critiqued within the contexts of (1) problem, (2) literature review, (3) definitions, (4) hypotheses, (5) methodology, (6) data analysis, (7) conclusions, and (8) evaluation.
The problem investigated in the research reported in the article was couched in terms of both the growing proportion of elderly persons in American society and the increasing proportion of the black minority component of the American population. The researcher pointed out that (1) the black experience in the United States may differ significantly from the white experience in this country in the contexts of aging and health promotion activities for the elderly, and (2) few studies have documented health promotion activities among older American blacks. This problem was clearly identified by the author of the article, and the conduct of the research was justified in the article. The stated purpose of the research reported in the article was to describe an analyze relationships between health promoting behaviors and currently perceived health status among elderly blacks in the United States.
Literature was reviewed in relation to both life satisfaction and in relation to health and health promotion activities. The review of literature related to life satisfaction was appropriate because life satisfaction was used in the research reported in the article as a reflection of well being, which was further interpreted as a subject's perceived health status, and the literature reviewed developed a theoretical rationale for the us...