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187528 Transforming beauty shops into internet cafés featuring an HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) prevention website: Results of internet-based feasibility surveys of beauty shop owners and needs assessment of clients

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 5:15 PM

Tonya Samuel, MSPH , Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College Columbia University, New York, NY
Barbara Wallace, PhD , Department of Health &Behavior Studies, Teachers College Columbia. University, New York, New York, NY
In order to ensure that women enjoy the right to health, the principle that one should go to where women are to be found in their very own natural environments may be followed—taking health educators into the community-based beauty shop. Meanwhile, the internet permits transcending borders and fostering public health by taking health information wherever the internet can reach. This paper will describe a project with the goal of transforming beauty shops into internet cafés that feature an HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) prevention website:

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session participants will be able to identify: 1) the rationale for going to where people are to be found in their very own natural environments and delivering health education in those contexts—as a guiding principle of community-based health promotion and disease prevention; 2) the value in establishing an internet café within beauty shops in order to expose black women to HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) prevention information, given the centrality of the beauty shop as a place black women regularly gather; 3) the results of a feasibility study (for adding an internet café) with shop owners and needs assessment of clients, including how these results inform the further tailoring of information appearing on the Beauty Shop pages of a popular website, i.e.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, African American

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have research experience in epidemiolgy and health education with publications in peer-reviewed journals. I am currently pursuing a doctorate degree and have prior experience as a presenter at APHA
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Crossing Borders Via the Web: The Internet and HIV/AIDS Prevention
See more of: APHA-Committee on Women's Rights