Minority Health and Health Equity Archive

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21769

Welcome to the Minority Health and Health Equity Archive (MHHEA), an electronic archive for digital resource materials in the fields of minority health and health disparities research and policy. It is offered as a no-charge resource to the public, academic scholars and health science researchers interested in the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Black community

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Using a Family History Intervention to Improve Cancer Risk Perception in a Black Community.
    (2011) Murthy, Vinaya S; Garza, Mary A; Almario, Donna A; Vogel, Kristen J; Grubs, Robin E; Gettig, Elizabeth A; Wilson, John W; Thomas, Stephen B
    Few studies examine the use of family history to influence risk perceptions in the African American population. This study examined the influence of a family health history (FHH) intervention on risk perceptions for breast (BRCA), colon (CRC), and prostate cancers (PRCA) among African Americans in Pittsburgh, PA. Participants (n = 665) completed pre- and post-surveys and FHHs. We compared their objective and perceived risks, classified as average, moderate, or high, and examined the accuracy of risk perceptions before and after the FHH intervention. The majority of participants had accurate risk perceptions post-FHH. Of those participants who were inaccurate pre-FHH, 43.3%, 43.8%, and 34.5% for BRCA, CRC, and PRCA, respectively, adopted accurate risk perceptions post-FHH intervention. The intervention was successful in a community setting. It has the potential to lead to healthy behavior modifications because participants adopted accurate risk perceptions. We identified a substantial number of at-risk individuals who could benefit from targeted prevention strategies, thus decreasing racial/ethnic cancer disparities.
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    Role of Black churches in health promotion programs: lessons from the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program.
    (2002) Markens, Susan; Fox, Sarah A; Taub, Bonnie; Gilbert, Mary Lou
    OBJECTIVES: This article assesses pastor-level factors that affect the successful recruitment and implementation of community-based health promotion programs in Black churches. METHODS: Semistructured interviews with 16 pastors of Black churches were analyzed for content. RESULTS: We found that although the involvement of Black pastors in an array of secular activities makes them open to participate in health programs, their overcommitment to other issues can negatively influence their ability to participate. Second, although Black pastors appreciate being included in and benefiting from health research, minorities' history of being underserved and exploited can lead to suspiciousness and reluctance to participate. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that those interested in developing church-based health programs in the Black community must be attuned to how the same factors can both facilitate and hinder a program's development.
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    The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 1932 to 1972: Implications for HIV Education and AIDS Risk Education Programs in the Black Community
    (1991) Thomas, Stephen B; Quinn, Sandra Crouse
    The Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the Negro male is the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. The strategies used to recruit and retain participants were quite similar to those being advocated for HIV/AIDS preention programs today. Almost 60 years after the study began, there remains a trail of distrust and suspicion that hampers HIV education efforts in Black communities. The AIDS epidemic has exposed the Tuskegee study as a histotical marker for legitimate discontent of Blacks with the public health system. The belief that AIDS is a form of genocide is rooted in a social context in which Black Americans, faced with persistent inequality, believe in conspiracy theories about Whites against Blacks. These theories range from the belief that the government promotes drug abuse in Black communities to the belief that HIV is a manmade weapon of racial warfare. An open and honest discussion of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can facilitate the process of rebuilding trust between the Black community and public health authorities. This dialogue can contribute to the development of HIV education programs that are scientifically sound, culturally sensitive, and ethnically acceptable.