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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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Defining and Assessing Organizational Competence in Serving Communities at Risk for Sexually Transmitted Diseases
    (2002) Thach, Sarah Brill; Eng, Eugenia; Thomas, James C.
    This study sought to develop an assessment tool to help health agencies enhance their capacity to provide sexually transmitted disease (STD) care to communities at risk and close the gap of racial disparities in health. Specifically, the study sought to (a) define the organizational competence of agencies serving communities at risk for STDs, and (b) develop a method to assess an agency’s organizational competence. In a rural Southern county, qualitative action research methods including key informant interviews, observation, and document review were used to assess four health agencies’ competence in responding to the needs of high STD-risk communities. Nine dimensions of organizational competence were identified: community participation, assessment of community needs, ensured access to services, community outreach, cultural competence, interagency collaboration, policy development, resource acquisition, and organizational commitment to serve. A competent organization was conceived as one that (a) is committed to serve, (b) works with communities at risk, (c) understands and appropriately responds to their needs, and (d) advocates on their behalf.
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    The Use of Family Health Histories to Address Health Disparities in an African American Community
    (2007) Vogel, Kristen J.; Murthy, Vinaya S.; Dudley, Beth; Grubs, Robin E.; Gettig, Elizabeth; Ford, Angela; Thomas, Stephen B.
    African Americans continue to suffer from health disparities. The Center for Minority Health (CMH) within the University of Pittsburgh has the mission to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. CMH has designed and implemented the Family Health History (FHH) Initiative. The FHH Initiative places geneticcounseling graduate students in the African American community to provide risk assessments and emphasize the importance of family history as it pertains to disease prevention. The FHH Initiative also allows participants to enroll into the Minority Research Recruitment Database (MRRD). This enables CMH to alert individuals to available research participation opportunities. In the first year of this program, 225 African Americans completed their family health histories. More than 60% of individuals enrolled in the MRRD. The authors report their initial successes and challenges of an initiative that incorporates awareness of family history information, proper screening guidelines, behavior modification recommendations, and support for participation in clinical research.
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    Development of a Minority Research Recruitment Database: Assessing Factors Associated with Willingness of African Americans to Enroll
    (2005) Vogel, Kristen J
    The Center for Minority Health (CMH) within the University of Pittsburgh has the mission to eliminate racial health disparities by 2010. One community-based intervention focuses on family health histories. Family health histories, or pedigrees, have been shown to be effective tools for identifying individuals at risk for common diseases who may benefit from increased screening or other risk reduction behaviors. Genetic counseling graduate students provide individuals with information pertaining to the importance of family history information in reducing the risk of chronic disease. Students travel to various locations in the African American community where they collect individuals’ family health histories. Individuals who participate have the opportunity to enroll in the Minority Research Recruitment Database from which they can be contacted regarding research for which they may qualify. This is the Center’s effort to increase minority recruitment. This has public health relevance given that minorities are often under-represented in research and it is thought that increasing minority recruitment will aid in elimination of racial health disparities. This study was developed to characterize individuals who elected to enroll in the database and compare them to those who declined enrollment. Factors for comparison include demographics, recruitment variables, opinions regarding research, health care, personal health, and family history. Factors were assessed for 126 participants of which approximately 80% enrolled in the database and 20% declined. Analysis revealed that those more likely to participate in the database were female, without health insurance, more likely to respond to monetary incentives, more likely to talk to their physician about concerns for developing a disease, and less likely to have previously refused participation in a clinical trial. These results indicate that women are more likely than men to seek health information that pertains to their family history, incentives act as a motivation for individuals to enroll in this database, and issues of distrust may still act as a barrier to research participation for African Americans.
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    Bring a health professional to the people day: A community outreach strategy for mobilizing African American barber shops and beauty salons as health promotion sites
    (2004) Browne, Mario; Garner, Victoria; Howard, Raymond; Reddick, Karen; Williams, Candice; Berget, Rachael; Sansing, Veronica; Gist, Maya; Taliaferro, Devon; Ford, Angela; Duncan, Edgar; Thomas, Stephen
    Despite an abundance of health care resources in the region, Pittsburgh’s African American community continues to suffer disproportionately from a burden of preventable diseases. Although there is no shortage of information about how to prevent these diseases, the African American community is clearly not benefiting from it. One of the reasons for this discrepancy is that health messages are not being delivered in the most effective and culturally appropriate manner. In September of 2002 the Department of Health and Human Services kicked off their “Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day”, a national effort to promote health and wellness in the African American community. At the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, the Center for Minority Health (CMH) adopted this model and tailored it to meet local needs by partnering with barbershops, beauty salons, and health professionals to create “Bring a Health Professional to the People Day”. Our strategy was designed with the idea that trusted community members such as barbers and beauticians can be good vehicles for disseminating accurate, evidence-based health promotion messages, especially relating to preventable diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes. The CMH partnered with barber shops and beauty salons. The focus was providing health screening and health information to patrons of these shops. Health professionals were recruited via website registration. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate an innovative approach of the use of trusted community members to promote health and wellness in the African American community.