Ethnic newspapers and low-income Spanish-speaking adults: influence of news consumption and health motivation on cancer prevention behaviors

Objective: Ethnic newspapers have the potential to reach and influence various cultural and ethnic subpopulations traditionally underserved in the United States. The current study sought to explore how ethnic news consumption interacts with health motivation to predict cancer prevention behaviors in a sample of Spanish-speaking adults. Design: Participants (N = 100) completed a survey in Spanish, with items measuring demographics, acculturation, health literacy, health motivation, ethnic newspaper consumption (for two papers: La Viva and La Raza), and cancer prevention behaviors. Results: Results indicated consumption of ethnic newspapers correlated positively to acculturation, and cancer screening utilization. In hierarchical regression analyses, the interaction of consumption of an ethnic newspaper (La Raza) and health motivation predicted two of the six prevention behaviors assessed: avoidance of fatty foods and screening behavior. Conclusion: The study provides evidence that consumption of Spanish-language newspapers enhances the likelihood that individuals with high levels of health motivation will engage in healthy behaviors. This finding highlights the utility of utilizing Spanish-language newspapers to reach underserved populations.