Family Health Histories: Creating a Culturally Tailored Tool to Reduce Health Disparities in the African American Community
Michigan State University
Summary
The understanding, utilization and uptake of Family Health History is essential to the prevention of health disparities in the African American community. Creating a culturally tailored Family Health History tool, co-developed by members of the African American community will inform, educate and empower African Americans about health issues related to their family genealogy. Applying the knowledge gained via Family Health Histories to increase preventative behaviors including screenings thus linking people to needed health services to prevent the onset of disease and illness.
Description
African Americans (AA) suffer disproportionately across most health disparities (HD). Preventative behaviors including screenings can inform proactive measures to address many HD which include: diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, HIV, STDs/STIs, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, most of which can be prevented.1-3 Evidence suggests that a lack of general health literacy (HL) and racially appropriate health communication strategies may contribute to the consistent high rates of health disparities in the AA community. Family Health Histories (FHH), which describe genetic and o…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Self Identify as African American; age 18 and older, English speaking Exclusion Criteria: * Non English speaking, non African American, younger than 18 years old
Interventions
- BehavioralAfrican American Family Health History Education Program
The AAFHHEP arm is an intervention to increase utilization of FHH and increase preventative screening. This tool will be culturally tailored by African Americans for African Americans.
Location
- Michigan State UniversityFlint, Michigan