Determinants of food preparation and hygiene practices among caregivers of children under two in Western Kenya: a formative research study.

Introduction: Diarrhea is a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality worldwide and is linked to early childhood stunting. Food contamination from improper preparation and hygiene practices is an important transmission pathway for exposure to enteric pathogens. Understanding the barriers and facilitators to hygienic food preparation can inform interventions to improve food hygiene.

Application of the Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations, and Behavior (COM-B) Change Model to Formative Research for Child Nutrition in Western Kenya.

Background: Interventions aimed at improving dietary intake and feeding practices have alone proven insufficient for combatting stunting resulting from poor nutrition and repeated infections.

Objectives: To support the development of an integrated water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and nutrition, social, and behavior change strategy aimed at reducing stunting, formative research was conducted in 2 program sites in western Kenya.

Methods: Twenty-nine key informant interviews were conducted with community leaders, health workers, and project staff, and 24 focus group discussions with caregivers of children under 2 y on topics related to feeding, sanitation, and hygiene behaviors.

Practices and Perspectives on Latrine Use, Child Feces Disposal, and Clean Play Environments in Western Kenya.

Exposure to fecal pathogens contributes to childhood diarrhea and stunting, causing harmful short- and long-term impacts to health. Understanding pathways of child fecal exposure and nutritional deficiencies is critical to informing interventions to reduce stunting. Our aim was to explore determinants of latrine use, disposal of child feces, and perceptions and provisions of a safe and clean child play environment among families with children under two (CU2) years to inform the design of a behavior change intervention to address water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and nutrition behaviors.

Social Environmental Correlates of Health Behaviors in a Faith-Based Policy and Environmental Change Intervention.

Diet and physical activity are behavioral risk factors for many chronic diseases, which are among the most common health conditions in the United States. Yet most Americans fall short of meeting established dietary and physical activity guidelines. Faith-based organizations as settings for health promotion interventions can affect members at multiple levels of the social ecological model.

Implementation of a Web-Based Organ Donation Educational Intervention: Development and Use of a Refined Process Evaluation Model.

Background: The lack of available organs is often considered to be the single greatest problem in transplantation today. Internet use is at an all-time high, creating an opportunity to increase public commitment to organ donation through the broad reach of Web-based behavioral interventions. Implementing Internet interventions, however, presents challenges including preventing fraudulent respondents and ensuring intervention uptake.

Practice to Evidence: Using Evaluability Assessment to Generate Practice-Based Evidence in Rural South Georgia.

Evidence from formal evaluation of real-world practice can address gaps in the public health knowledge base and provide information about feasible, relevant strategies for varied settings. Interest in evaluability assessment (EA) as an approach for generating practice-based evidence has grown. EA has been central to several structured assessment processes that identify and select promising programs and evaluate those most likely to produce useful findings.

The Inclusion of African-American Study Participants in Web-Based Research Studies: Viewpoint.

The use of Web-based methods for research recruitment and intervention delivery has greatly increased as Internet usage continues to grow. These Internet-based strategies allow for researchers to quickly reach more people. African-Americans are underrepresented in health research studies.

Promoting Policy and Environmental Change in Faith-Based Organizations: Description and Findings From a Mini-Grants Program.

Purpose: The Emory Prevention Research Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network mini-grant program funded faith-based organizations to implement policy and environmental change to promote healthy eating and physical activity in rural South Georgia. This study describes the existing health promotion environment and its relationship to church member behavior.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Living donor transplant education for African American patients with end-stage renal disease.

Context: Despite numerous benefits of live donor kidney transplant (LDKT), patient-level barriers often prevent African Americans from considering LDKT. Educational interventions designed to address patient-level barriers may increase willingness among African American patients with end-stage renal disease to explore LDKT as a treatment option.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a culturally sensitive educational intervention called Living ACTS (About Choices in Transplantation and Sharing) that was designed to address patient-level barriers to LDKT among African American patients with end-stage renal disease.

Understanding African American's religious beliefs and organ donation intentions.

African Americans are overrepresented on the organ transplant waiting list and underrepresented among organ and tissue donors. One of the most highly noted reasons for lack of donation is the perception that donation is contrary to religious beliefs. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to explore the complexities of religion (beliefs, religiosity, and religious involvement) and its association with willingness to donate and the written expression of donation intentions.

Understanding the relationship between trust in health care and attitudes toward living donor transplant among African Americans with end-stage renal disease.

Transplantation is the favored therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Unfortunately, demand for available organs far outpaces the supply. African Americans are disproportionately affected by the ever-widening gap between organ supply and demand.

Project ACTS II: organ donation education for African American adults.

Objective: Project ACTS "About Choices in Transplantation and Sharing" is a culturally sensitive intervention designed to address organ donation concerns among African American adults. Our study sought to evaluate the efficacy of two versions of the Project ACTS intervention and to determine whether reviewing materials in a group setting would be more effective at increasing participants' interest in organ and tissue donation than allowing participants to review the materials at home with friends and family.

Design: A pre-post simple factorial experimental design was used to assess differences between intervention package (Project ACTS I vs II) and mode of delivery (group vs take home).

Residential racial composition, spatial access to care, and breast cancer mortality among women in Georgia.

We explored the association between neighborhood residential racial composition and breast cancer mortality among Black and White breast cancer patients in Georgia and whether spatial access to cancer care mediates this association. Participants included 15,256 women living in 15 metropolitan statistical areas in Georgia who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1999 and 2003. Residential racial composition was operationalized as the percent of Black residents in the census tract.

Testing the utility of a modified organ donation model among African American adults.

African Americans are overrepresented on the organ transplant waiting list because they are disproportionately impacted by certain health conditions that potentially warrant a life-saving transplant. While the African American need for transplantation is considerably high, organ and tissue donation rates are comparatively low, resulting in African Americans spending more than twice the amount of time on the national transplant waiting list as compared to people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to the reluctance expressed by African Americans with respect to organ donation.

Distrust in the healthcare system and organ donation intentions among African Americans.

The purpose of this study is to further understanding of the association between distrust in the healthcare system and written and verbal expressions of donation intentions among African Americans. We hypothesize that distrust in the healthcare system will be significantly, positively associated with both verbal and written donation intentions. Five hundred and eighty five participants completed a 98-item survey that included scales on distrust in the healthcare system and donation intentions.

Evaluation of the Avon Foundation community education and outreach initiative Community Patient Navigation Program.

Introduction: Black women in the United States experience disproportionate breast cancer mortality. Culturally appropriate community education on the importance of breast health coupled with the availability of free or low-cost mammography screening services may help improve the use of mammography screening services among Black women. The Avon Foundation Community Patient Navigation Program seeks to fill this need.

Correlates of support for living donation among African American adults.

Context: Living donation is studied with much less intensity among African Americans than among the general population. Examination of barriers to living donation can lead to effective strategies to educate dialysis patients and their families about this alternative.

Objective: To explore the correlates of likelihood of becoming a living donor among community-recruited African American adults.

Health literacy and control in the medical encounter: a mixed-methods analysis.

Background: Physician-patient communication can be described according to 4 prototypes of control--paternalism, mutuality, consumerism, or default. Patients with inadequate health literacy skills may be less-active participants in their care and more likely to have paternalistic encounters.

Methods: Two independent coders analyzed 31 transcribed outpatient medical visits between physicians and African American patients with diabetes according to the 4 prototypes of control.

Reliability and validity of the alcohol consequences expectations scale.

Objectives: To examine the reliability and validity of a new measure of alcohol outcome expectations for college students, the Alcohol Consequences Expectations Scale (ACES).

Methods: College students (N=169) completed the ACES and several other measures.

Results: Results support the existence of 5 internally consistent subscales.

Male prisoners and HIV prevention: a call for action ignored.

US prison inmates are disproportionately indigent young men of color. These individuals are severely affected by HIV/AIDS, largely owing to the high-risk behavior that they engage in prior to incarceration. Researchers and practitioners have issued a call for the importance of offering HIV prevention services in prison settings.

Understanding the role of clergy in African American organ and tissue donation decision-making.

Objectives: To describe and understand the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences towards organ and tissue donation among African American clergy in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The secondary objective is to understand what messages clergy are providing to their parishioners relative to organ and tissue donation, and what their perceived role is in donation education.

Design: A qualitative study in which African American clergy (n=26) participated in four focus groups.