ABSTRACT
This study highlights the role of local communities in creating culturally rooted health information resources based on comparative effectiveness research (CER), depicting the role of culture in creating entry points for building community-grounded communication structures for evidence-based health knowledge. We report the results from running a year-long culture-centered campaign that was carried out among African American communities in two counties, Lake and Marion County, in Indiana addressing basic evidence-based knowledge on four areas of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Campaign effectiveness was tested through an experimental design with post-test knowledge of CER among African Americans in these counties compared to CER knowledge among African Americans in a comparable control county (Allen). Our campaign, based on the principles of the culture-centered approach (CCA), increased community CER knowledge in the experimental communities relative to a community that did not receive the culturally centered health information campaign. The CCA-based campaign developed by community members and distributed through the mass media, community wide channels such as health fairs and church meetings, postcards, and face-to-face interventions explaining the postcards improved CER knowledge in specific areas (ACE-I/ARBs, atrial fibrillation, and renal artery stenosis) in the CCA communities as compared to the control community.
Subject(s)
Black or African American , Cardiovascular Diseases/ethnology , Community Participation/methods , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Promotion/organization & administration , Information Dissemination/methods , Cardiovascular Diseases/diagnosis , Cardiovascular Diseases/prevention & control , Communication , Comparative Effectiveness Research/organization & administration , Cultural Deprivation , Evidence-Based Practice , Health Status Disparities , Humans , Indiana , Patient ParticipationABSTRACT
Across the life course, African Americans bear an unequal burden of disease compared to other racial groups. In spite of the widespread acknowledgment of racial health disparities, the voices of African Americans, their articulations of health and their local etiologies of health disparities are limited. In this article, we highlight the important role of communication scholarship to understand the everyday enactment of health disparities. Drawing upon the culture-centered approach (CCA) to co-construct narratives of health with African Americans residents of Lake County, Indiana, we explore the presence of stress in the everyday narratives of health. These narratives voice the social and structural sources of stress, and articulate resistive coping strategies embedded in relationship to structures.
Subject(s)
Black or African American/statistics & numerical data , Health Status Disparities , Narration , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Adaptation, Psychological , Cardiovascular Diseases/ethnology , Cardiovascular Diseases/mortality , Humans , Indiana , Interviews as TopicABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Community-based mental health promotion programs for healthy people of color, without a diagnosed mental health condition are rare in public health literature. OBJECTIVES: A statewide minority health agency led a 4-year partnership in Indiana with researchers, community-based minority health affiliates, and people of color to design, pilot, and evaluate a mental health promotion program. METHODS: A participatory process was utilized to develop and test a group health promotion program designed with and for communities of color to improve knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors for handling life stresses in a healthy way. Activities included capacity building, two implementation cycles, and mixed-methods evaluation. RESULTS: The partnership revealed challenges and lessons learned such as recruiting skilled facilitators, effective communication about goals for cultural and linguistic appropriateness, maintaining fidelity, and realigning funding approaches for affiliates. CONCLUSIONS: Next steps include revisions based on lessons learned, additional cultural and linguistic tailoring of the program, and offering statewide access.