Narratives to enhance smoking cessation interventions among African-American smokers, the ACCE project

BACKGROUND: Low-income, African-American smokers are less likely to have resources to aid in quitting smoking. Narrative communication may provide an enhancement to traditional smoking cessation interventions like NRT, medications, or behavioral treatments for this audience. After extensive pilot testing of stories and personal experiences with smoking cessation from African-Americans from a low-income community, we conducted a randomized control trial using stories to augment routine inpatient treatment among African-Americans at an urban Southern hospital (N = 300). RESULTS: Differences in smoking cessation outcomes between the intervention (stories DVD + routine clinical treatment) and control (routine clinical treatment) arms were compared using self-report and carbon monoxide measurement at 6-months. Compared to control, individuals who viewed the intervention stories DVD reported greater intentions to quit. Although continuous quitting marginally favored the intervention, our main result did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.16). CONCLUSION: Narrative communication via storytelling to promote smoking cessation among African-Americans in the South is one method to communicate smoking cessation. Results suggest this may not be sufficient as a stand-alone augmentation of routine clinical treatment for continuous smoking cessation. Smoking cessation efforts need to continually assess different means of communicating to smokers about quitting. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: The ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier is NCT00101491. This trial was registered January 10, 2005

ALBACORE OBS deployment cruise report

The primary goal of the 2010 ALBACORE (Asthenospheric and Lithospheric Broadband Architecture from the California Offshore Region Experiment) cruise was to deploy 34 ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) in a 150 km (north-south) by 400 km (east-west) region off the coast of Southern California (Fig. 1). The cruise took place on R/V Melville, departing out of San Diego on August 14, 2010 and arriving back in San Diego on August 27, 2001 with no port stops in between

On Some Practical Considerations Regarding Community-Based Participatory Research for Addressing Cancer Health Disparities

There is a consensus about the benefits of community-based participatory research and the important role it can play in reducing cancer health disparities. Although every community-based participatory research project is unique in many ways, several fundamental issues deserve consideration. We discuss issues concerning community representation, possible tensions within community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects, and staffing CBPR projects. Flexibility, open-mindedness, transparency, and above all, caring, are characteristics that best ensure successful and rewarding outcomes

The Theory of Reasoned Action and Intention to Seek Cancer Information

Objectives : To evaluate the applicability of the theory of reasoned action to explain men\u27s intentions to seek prostate cancer information. Methods : Three hundred randomly selected African American men participated in telephone interviews. Correlational and regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships among measures. Results : All relationships were significant in regression analyses. Attitudes and subjective norm were significantly related to intentions. Indirect measures of beliefs derived from elicitation research were associated with direct measures of attitude and subjective norms. Conclusions : The data are sufficiently clear to support the applicability of the theory for this behavioral domain with African American men and suggest several important areas for future research

Statewide Tuskegee Alliance for Clinical Trials-A Community Coalition to Enhance Minority Participation in Medical Research

BACKGROUND. Cancer mortality rates for all sites are nearly 2.5 times greater for African-Americans compared with whites. In addition, there are data implying that cancer treatment outcomes for minorities are unfavorable compared with whites. Whether this is due to poor access to health care or a biologic property of malignancies occurring in specific populations remains to be determined. Because of these unknown factors, targeting minorities for clinical trials may contribute toward the reduction of the overall morbidity and mortality associated with specific cancers. METHODS. The current study describes the establishment of a genuine collaborative partnership between the targeted minority community and clinical investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This partnership was formed for the purpose of identifying strategies that would enhance the accrual and retention of minority participants into current and future cancer prevention and control trials. Focus groups and key informant interviews were conducted to ascertain the community’s perception of participating in clinical trials. RESULTS. The majority of focus group participants were unclear regarding the nature of clinical trials. Participants indicated that they would participate in research studies if they received adequate information regarding the purpose and benefits of the study, and if the charge came from a pastor or physician. Barriers to participation included time commitments, family obligations, whether blood was involved, and past experiences. The majority of the participants indicated that their knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not influence their decision to participate in research. A major outcome of the conference was the formation of the Statewide Tuskegee Alliance Coalition. The planning coalition decided to continue their efforts to work with communities and promote cancer awareness among minorities. After the conference, the coalition conducted several meetings and in July 1998, 1 year after the conference, the coalition selected a chair, co-chair, and a formal name for the organized group. CONCLUSIONS. The planning, development, and implementation of this conference provided a valuable experience for researchers and community members. It was discovered that community involvement in the early phase of this project contributed to its success. Furthermore, the partnership that developed between researchers (academic institutions) and communities successfully provided an infrastructure that supported the interest of both groups.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1097-0142%2820010101%2991%3A1%2B%3C237%3A%3AAID-CNCR11%3E3.0.CO%3B2-

Toward a Model of Prostate Cancer Information Seeking: Identifying Salient Behavioral and Normative Beliefs Among African American Men

Public health actions to improve African American men\u27s ability to make informed decisions about participation in prostate cancer control activities have a greater likelihood of success when they are theory driven and informed by members of the target population. This article reports on formative research to evaluate the usefulness of the theory of reasoned action as a model to explain and predict prostate cancer information-seeking behavior by African American men. Fifty-two men participated in eight focus group interviews. Positive behavioral beliefs for obtaining prostate cancer information from physicians included increasing awareness of and obtaining accurate information about the disease, early detection and screening, and treatment. Negative beliefs included fear, distrust, and inconvenience. Significant others, peers, siblings, and religious leaders were identified as individuals who could influence this behavior. These findings provide additional insight into ways to reach and intervene with African American men to influence this important cancer control activity

Explaining and Improving Breast Cancer Information Acquisition Among African American Women in the Deep South

Objectives: A major challenge facing contemporary cancer educators is how to optimize the dissemination of breast cancer prevention and control information to African American women in the Deep South who are believed to be cancer free. The purpose of this research was to provide insight into the breast cancer information-acquisition experiences of African American women in Alabama and Mississippi and to make recommendations on ways to better reach members of this high-risk, underserved population. Methods: Focus group methodology was used in a repeated, cross-sectional research design with 64 African American women, 35 years old or older who lived in one of four urban or rural counties in Alabama and Mississippi. Results: Axial-coded themes emerged around sources of cancer information, patterns of information acquisition, characteristics of preferred sources, and characteristics of least-preferred sources. Conclusions: It is important to invest in lay health educators to optimize the dissemination of breast cancer information to African American women who are believed to be cancer free in the Deep South

Efficacy of a Web-Based Intervention to Improve and Sustain Knowledge and Screening for Amblyopia in Primary Care Settings

Despite effective screening and treatment, amblyopia is still a very common cause of vision loss in children and adults. Primary care physicians miss many opportunities to screen vision using quantitative techniques like acuity, especially at preschool age. This article describes a web-based intervention developed to improve screening for amblyopia and strabismus in the medical home, and shows significantly improved knowledge by physician participants that was sustained 1 to 3 years later