Minority Health and Health Equity Archive
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Item The contributions of health communication to eliminating health disparities.(2004) Freimuth, Vicki S; Quinn, Sandra CrouseThe pressing need to eliminate health disparities calls on public health professionals to use every effective tool possible. Health communication, defined as the study and use of methods to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health, was first recognized as a subset of the field of communication in 1975, when the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association was founded.1,2 The National Communication Association formed a division of the same name in 1985. In 1997, the Public Health Education and Health Promotion section within the American Public Health Association formally recognized health communication as part of . . .Item The Urban Context: A Place to Eliminate Health Disparities and Build Organizational Capacity(2010) Gilbert, Keon L.; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Ford, Angela F.; Thomas, Stephen B.This study seeks to examine the process of building the capacity to address health disparities in several urban African American neighborhoods. An inter-organizational network consisting of a research university, community members, community organizations, media partners, and foundations was formed to develop a community-based intervention designed to provide health promotion and disease prevention strategies for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. In-depth qualitative interviews (n = 18) with foundation executives and project directors, civic organization leadership, community leaders, county epidemiologist, and university partners were conducted. Our study contextualizes a process to build a public health partnership using cultural, community, organizational, and societal factors necessary to address health disparities. Results showed 5 important factors to build organizational capacity: leadership, institutional commitment, trust, credibility, and inter-organizational networks. These factors reflected other important organizational and community capacity indicators such as: community context, organizational policies, practices and structures, and the establishment of new commitments and partnerships important to comprehensively address urban health disparities. Understanding these factors to address African American health disparities will provide lessons learned for health educators, researchers, practitioners, foundations, and communities interested in building and sustaining capacity efforts through the design, implementation, and maintenance of a community-based health promotion interventionItem Toward a fourth generation of disparities research to achieve health equity(2011) Thomas, Stephen B.; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Butler, James; Fryer, Craig S.; Garza, Mary A.Achieving health equity, driven by the elimination of health disparities, is a goal of Healthy People 2020. In recent decades, the improvement in health status has been remarkable for the U.S. population as a whole. However, racial and ethnic minority populations continue to lag behind whites with a quality of life diminished by illness from preventable chronic diseases and a life span cut short by premature death. We examine a conceptual framework of three generations of health disparities research to understand (a) data trends, (b) factors driving disparities, and (c) solutions for closing the gap. We propose a new, fourth generation of research grounded in public health critical race praxis, utilizing comprehensive interventions to address race, racism, and structural inequalities and advancing evaluation methods to foster our ability to eliminate disparities. This new generation demands that we address the researcher's own biases as part of the research process.Item Framing a Transdisciplinary Research Agenda in Health Education to Address Health Disparities and Social Inequities: A Road Map for SOPHE Action(2006) Gambescia, Stephen F.; Woodhouse, Lynn D.; Auld, M. Elaine; Green, B. Lee; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Airhihenbuwa, Collins O.the Healthy People 2010 goal of eliminating health disparities through its Strategic Plan. SOPHE held an Inaugural Health Education Research Disparities Summit, Health Disparities and Social Inequities: Framing a Transdisciplinary Research Agenda in Health Education, August 8 and 9, 2005. This article explains the process used at the Summit where more than 80 researchers, academicians, practitioners, and students from across the country convened to ask fundamental questions about health disparity associated with race and ethnicity and how a health education research agenda could help in eliminating these disparities. From this Summit, about a dozen questions and/or recommendations have been developed to frame our future discussions about health disparities. Through its Research Agenda Committee, SOPHE has developed a process of translation and dissemination, including community participation, review, dialogue, and action.Item The National Negro Health Movement: Lessons For Eliminating Health Disparities Today(2001) Quinn, Sandra CrouseFar too many of us trained in the health professions seek to address disparities in health status between communities of color and white Americans as if we are addressing a new problem. While there was little agreement on cause or solution, southern white physicians and black researchers such as W.E.B. DuBois documented health disparities in the early part of the 20th century.Item The National Negro Health Week, 1915 to 1951: A Descriptive Account(2001) Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Thomas, Stephen B.In 1914, Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, viewed the poor health status of black Americans as an obstacle to economic progress and issued a call for "the Negro people... to join in a movement which shall be known as Health Improvement Week" (Patterson, 1939). Health Improvement Week evolved into the National Negro Health Week, observed annually for 35 years. This article provides an overview of the structure and activities of the National Negro Health Week and suggests implications for public health in the black community today.Item Building Community Trust: Lessons From an STD/HIV Peer Educator Program With African American Barbers and Beauticians(2002) Lewis, Yalonda R; Shain, Lara; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Turner, Katherine; Moore, TimothySexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV, and AIDS disproportionately affect the African American community. In 1999, the rates of gonorrhea and primary and secondary syphilis among African Americans in the United States were approximately 30 times greater than those rates in Whites. Although African Americans represent only 12% of the population nationwide, they constitute 37% of the cumulative AIDS cases. In North Carolina’s Durham County, African Americans accounted for 88% (553) of the HIV cases reported as of December 2000. There remains a demand for prevention efforts that are culturally relevant, incorporating the social norms and values of the African American community. Through the Barber and Beautician STD/HIV Peer Educator Program of the Durham County Health Department’s Project StraighTalk (PS), local barbers and beauticians provide condoms, educational materials, and education to their clients about STDs/HIV. In collaboration with PS, Lewis and Shain performed a needs assessment of the program, including interviews with stylists and clients, to inform program enhancement and materials development. This article describes the needs assessment process, with a specific focus on the challenges of working closely with a community and the lessons learned.