Outcomes from Walk the Talk: a nursing intervention for Black women.

Objective: Explore changes in walking behavior, blood pressure, and weight over the course of a pilot intervention designed to increase physical activity.

Design: A pre/post single group design was used to examine outcomes of a 12-month group intervention with 6-month follow-up.

Sample: Twenty-one sedentary hypertensive African American women residing in Mid-Missouri with a mean age of 50.

Re/Affirming and re/conceptualizing disciplinary knowledge as the foundation for doctoral education.

Global shortages of nurses, limited resources, and increasing transnational crises mandate changes in healthcare planning and delivery. Disciplinary knowledge is integral to the development of nurse practitioners and researchers who can provide leadership role in addressing critical healthcare problems. This collaborative meditation examines how critical reflection about disciplinary knowledge in the context of nursing doctoral education facilitates this endeavor.

Expanding the obesity research paradigm to reach African American communities.

Obesity is more prevalent among African Americans and other racial and ethnic minority populations than among whites. The behaviors that determine weight status are embedded in the core social and cultural processes and environments of day-to-day life in these populations. Therefore, identifying effective, sustainable solutions to obesity requires an ecological model that is inclusive of relevant contextual variables.

Achieving healthy weight in African-American communities: research perspectives and priorities.

The longstanding high burden of obesity in African-American women and the more recent, steeper than average rise in obesity prevalence among African-American children constitute a mandate for an increased focus on obesity prevention and treatment research in African-American communities. The African-American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) was formed to stimulate and support greater participation in framing and implementing the obesity research agenda by investigators who have both social and cultural grounding in African-American life experiences and obesity-related scientific expertise. AACORN's examination of obesity research agenda issues began in 2003 in conjunction with the Think Tank on Enhancing Obesity Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Changes in steps per day over the course of a pilot walking intervention.

Unlabelled: The objective of this study is to explicate changes in steps per day observed over the course of a pilot study concerned with promoting walking. A pre/post single group design was used to evaluate a 12-month group intervention with 6-month follow-up with a sample of twenty-one sedentary, hypertensive African American women 25-68 years of age. A 3-hour monthly meeting was paired with an at-home walking component.

Recruitment and entrance of participants into a physical activity intervention for hypertensive African American women.

Decreasing health disparities between White Americans and racial/ethnic minority populations is a public health priority. An ongoing inability to attract sufficient numbers of African Americans and other people of color to participate in research studies is a major barrier to accomplishing this goal. Participation of racial/ethnic minorities in intervention studies is especially critical to the development of appropriate strategies to promote health among these populations.

It's all sacred: African American women's perspectives on spirituality.

In this study, we examined the meaning and function of spirituality for a group of African American women. Participants had been recruited for a focus group study exploring the significance of mother-daughter-sister relationships to the well being and health behavior choices of women. Women developed individually defined concepts of spirituality by combining Judeo-Christian traditions and African cosmology.

Interventions to promote physical activity among African American women.

The lack of routine physical activity among African American women places them at risk for negative health outcomes associated with inactivity. The number of studies focused on African American women has increased dramatically in the past decade. This review examined the intervention research literature testing strategies to increase activity among African American women.

Development of scholars interested in community-based health promotion research.

Culturally consistent community-based health promotion interventions have been identified as integral components of strategies to decrease health disparities. The limited number of culturally competent scholars impedes the development of appropriate interventions. This article examines issues relevant to the development of scholars interested in community-based health promotion research.

Talk that talk: storytelling and analysis rooted in African American oral tradition.

Stories are the foundation of qualitative research. However, the development of qualitative methods rooted in oral traditions remains largely unexplored by researchers. The contextual and historical influences on storytelling and storytaking are critical features of the African American oral tradition that are often ignored or minimized in qualitative research.