Shaping Core Health Messages: Rural, Low-Income Mothers Speak Through Participatory Action Research.

Rural, low-income families are disproportionately impacted by health problems owing to structural barriers (e.g., transportation, health insurance coverage) and personal barriers (e.

Single Female Breast Cancer Patients' Perspectives on Intimate Relationships.

This qualitative study examined how female breast cancer patients without partners conceptualized their relationship status. Qualitative data were collected from 20 participants who did not have partners during diagnosis and treatment. Phenomenology informed the methodology and thematic analysis.

Smart Choice Health Insurance©: A New, Interdisciplinary Program to Enhance Health Insurance Literacy.

Smart Choice Health Insurance© is a consumer education program based on the definition and emerging measurement of health insurance literacy and a review of literature and appropriate theoretical frameworks. An interdisciplinary team of financial and health educators was formed to develop and pilot the program, with the goal of reducing confusion and increasing confidence in the consumer's ability to make a smart health insurance decision. Educators in seven states, certified to teach the program, conducted workshops for 994 consumers.

Empowerment in the process of health messaging for rural low-income mothers: an exploratory message design project.

Rural, low-income mothers face challenges to their health equal to or greater than those of low-income mothers from urban areas. This study put health message design into the hands of low-income rural mothers. The current study filled a research gap by analyzing a participatory process used to design health messages tailored to the everyday lives of rural low-income mothers.

What do health literacy and cultural competence have in common? Calling for a collaborative health professional pedagogy.

Limited health literacy is recognized as contributing to racial/ethnic and other health disparities through mechanisms of poor understanding and adherence, as well as to limited access to health care. Recent studies have focused on interventions to address literacy gaps between patients and health care providers, focusing on communication techniques and redefining the responsibility for closing gaps. Cultural differences between patient and provider, if left unaddressed, have been shown to contribute to poor health outcomes through misunderstanding, value conflicts, and disparate concepts of health and illness.

Oral health literacy: at the intersection of K-12 education and public health.

The link between a student's health and their ability to learn is well-established. Schools are the intersection of public health programs, dental care, and self-care. This position affords them a unique role and opportunity to enhance health literacy, including oral health literacy.

Family influence: key to fruit and vegetable consumption among fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Objective: To assess social and familial environmental influences on fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption of fourth- and fifth-graders living in a culturally diverse, urban setting.

Design: In 2006, students from 9 fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms from a public school in the Washington-Baltimore Metropolitan Region were recruited as part of the Food Stamp Nutrition Education's initiative to increase FV consumption among school-aged children in low-income schools. This intervention was conducted in partnership with the school.

Health needs and health care utilization among rural, low-income women.

This study examined the correlates of health service utilization in a sample of low-income, rural women. Self-reported data were from Rural Families Speak (N = 275), a multi-state study of low-income, rural families in the U.S.

Depression and poverty among rural women: a relationship of social causation or social selection?

Context And Purpose: Depression among rural women is a major public health concern. The purpose of this study was to test the competing theories of social causation and social selection to assess the relationship between depression and economic status for a sample of rural, low-income women in the United States.

Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from Rural Families Speak, a US Department of Agriculture-funded multi-state, longitudinal study of rural low-income families (N = 413).

Religious beliefs, faith community involvement and depression: a study of rural, low-income mothers.

The current study investigated the connection between religion and mental health of 131 rural, low-income mothers. Two dimensions of religion, beliefs and faith community involvement, were included and depression was assessed by the CES-D. The sample consisted of mothers who participated in Wave 2 of a multi-state research project.