Facilitators and barriers to leadership and career opportunities in minority nurses in public health departments.

Objectives: Elicit information from minority public health nurses regarding experiences and opportunities for leadership development and career advancement in public health departments (PHDs).

Design: Qualitative research design to determine minority nurses' experiences of opportunities and barriers influencing leadership development and career advancement in PHDs.

Sample: Thirty-nine minority nurses from all regions of the United States participated in a telephone interview.

The World Health Organization - Community Empowerment Model in Addressing Food Insecurity in Low-Income African-American Women: A Review of the Literature.

Numerous researchers have examined the serious consequences of food insecurity and food deserts affecting the nutritional health of poor or low-income African-American women and their families. Food insecurity is defined as having limited or uncertain capacityfor acquiring sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times to meet one's dietary needs, while food deserts refer to economically and socially-deprived inner city areas with inadequate food supply that are often inhabited by low-income groups. Researchers have found that despite the capacity of community-level resources such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) supporting healthy nutrition, food insecurity persists among some recipients of both nutritional resources.

Obesity in African-American Women--The Time Bomb is Ticking: An Urgent Call for Change.

The "time bomb is ticking" because there is an obesity crisis associated with higher rates of chronic diseases such as stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer in African-American women compared to White women. African-American women incur higher medical costs from hospitalizations, decreased productivity in the work setting, lost wages, the needfor medical benefits and pharmacy-associated costs, and more time away from family than White women. Numerous factors, such as the socio-cultural context of eating, acceptance of a larger weight status, the emotionally liberating effects offood, and preference for highfat and high caloric, sugary-content, and sodium-laden food influences the obesity crisis in African-American women.

The influence of social support relationships on mammography screening in African-American women.

Evidence indicates that mammography screenings have increased in African-American women who are 50 years of age or older; however, they continue to experience later-stage discovery and poorer survival rates from breast cancer compared to White women. Although research has consistently found that social support relationships affects mammography screening in African-American women, little is known about the preventive health behaviors of individuals in these relationships that may be associated with mammography screening. This study examined that association and found that social support relationships, defined as blood-relatives and extended kinship networks, stressed personal responsibility and accountability for preventive health; therefore, supporting mammography screening.

Social processes used by African American women in making decisions about mammography screening.

Purpose: To describe the social processes used by African American (AA) women ages > or = 50 years in making decisions about mammography screening.

Design: Grounded theory methodology.

Methods: Tape-recorded interviews with a researcher-designed, semi-structured interview guide with an initial and theoretical sample of 30 AA women ages 52 to 71 of diverse socioeconomic status.

Claiming health: mammography screening decision making of African American women.

Purpose/objectives: To develop a substantive theory that explains how African American women aged 50 years and older of different socioeconomic status (SES) make decisions about mammography screening.

Design: Qualitative, grounded theory.

Setting: Churches, places of employment, or women's homes in a large city in Ohio.

Collaborative breast health intervention for African American women of lower socioeconomic status.

Purpose/objectives: To describe all phases of a collaborative breast health intervention delivered by paraprofessionals or specially trained community health advisors (CHAs) for African American women designed to increase mammography screening.

Design: Collaborative pretest, post-test breast health intervention.

Setting: Large city in Ohio.

An outsider's experiences in conducting field research in an African-American community.

Researchers agree that the conduct of field research is a challenging and enlightening experience. This article describes an African-American (AA) researcher's experiences in accessing and conducting field research in an AA community. These experiences were from a Grounded Theory (GT) qualitative research study to understand the social contexts and processes, and other interrelated factors such as beliefs in God or a higher being and role expectations on mammography-screening decision-making in older, urban AA women of various socioeconomic strata.