Abstract

The need to study the African diaspora has never been greater According to Anderson 2018 in 2015 there were 2 1 million African immigrants living in the United States This research studies the Kenyan diaspora in the US It looks at health behavior perceptions and attitudes among men and women of Kenyan descent who live in three selected state Alabama Georgia and North Carolina Using a Health Belief Model HBM questionnaire the Kenyan immigrants were given questionnaires in meeting places The HBM model has four main constructs are perceptions of 1 susceptibility 2 severity seriousness 3 barriers 4 benefits Results indicated that most Kenyan immigrants viewed improved health as the major benefit from physical activity 37 5 followed by losing weight 23 2 then increasing physical condition 13 1 The social change implications of the study are that the Kenyan immigrant population need to be encouraged to exercise and eat healthily Results further showed that majority of the respondents 50 3 fail to exercise due to lack of enough time 13 8 due to lack of motivation while 10 2 due to inconvenience As far as cue to action is concerned 28 4 of the participants indicated not fitting comfortably into clothing as the greatest cue followed by 24 8 of the doctor s recommendation while 12 1 indicated availability of exercise program as a cue to action The results reveal that there were no significant gender differences in health perceptions of barriers to action p 0 564 0 05 of benefits to exercise p 0 604 0 05 no significant difference in perception of cue to action p 0 159 0 05 and risk susceptibility p 0 341 0 05