Introduction: Women of low socioeconomic status experience health disparities that contribute to poor outcomes. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore self-perception of health and health promoting behaviors in women who were patients in a federally qualified health center. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used to interview 19 women. The researchers conducted content analysis and used descriptive statistics to present participant demographics. Results: Women viewed health primarily as physical and themselves as healthy, in-between healthy and unhealthy, or unhealthy. Healthy women made more active attempts to improve their health, while not healthy women reported twice as many barriers to health maintenance and felt defined by their illnesses. Conclusion: Findings support that a women's self-perception of health is aligned with self-management health behaviors and health outcomes.
Keywords: health behavior; health status; qualitative methods; self-management; underserved communities; women’s health.