The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43156

Scott D. Rhodes, PhD, MPH, CHES¹, Ivan M. Remnitz, MA², Eugenia Eng, DrPH³, Ramiro Arceo⁴, Adolfo Aguilar⁵, Jose Alegria⁶, and Holly Baddour⁶. (1) Department of Health Behavior and Education, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, 319D Rosenau Hall, Campus Box #7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919/966-8650, scott_rhodes@unc.edu, (2) Hispanic Liaison/El Vinculo Hispano, Chatham Communities In Action, 234 Fearrington Post, Pittsboro, NC 27312-8555, (3) Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall - Campus Box 7400, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400, (4) Student Action with Farmworkers, 1317 West Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27705, (5) Alliance of AIDS Services/Carolina, PO Box 12583, Raleigh, NC 27605, (6) Chatham Social Health Council, 73 Camp Drive, PO Box 297, Pittsboro, NC 27312

Established in 1992, Chatham Communities In Action (CCIA), originally funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, brings together partners from formal and informal community-based groups, health agencies and academic institutions to improve the health and well being of Chatham County residents. Because of both the rapid growth of the Latino population in Chatham County and national findings suggesting disproportional rates of HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases among Latino populations, CCIA explored sexual health issues of Latino men in order to direct future efforts designed to address identified community challenges and harness identified community strengths.

Using a focus group methodology, participants were recruited using criterion sampling of adult male soccer-team members who resided in Chatham County, NC. A total of 5 Spanish-language focus groups were conducted. The focus group discussion guide was created and reviewed a community-based committee that included Latino soccer-league representatives who lived in another county and were excluded from participation in the focus groups, Latino and non-Latino representatives from CCIA, and university representatives who have experience in cross-cultural data collection, analysis and interpretation. Session notes and transcripts were created, and analyzed using standard qualitative data analysis procedures. Identified themes were presented to committee representatives for discussion, clarification and validation of interpretation. Final review and further discussion with members from the focus groups validated the findings.

This presentation describes the process of initiating a community-based participatory research study of the sexual health of Latino men living in Chatham County, NC; reveals the findings from this study; explores the next steps for CCIA; and, evaluates the use of the focus group methodology among Latino men.

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