Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #103864

Sarah J. Gehlert, PhD¹, Ann Pope, MSW¹, Christopher Masi, MD, PhD¹, Maria Ferrera, MA¹, Courtenay Savage, MA¹, Jewell Brazelton, MSW¹, Tina K. Sacks, MA², and Priscilla Schwantes, MA¹. (1) Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research, The University of Chicago, 940 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, (773) 834-9093, s-gehlert@uchicago.edu, (2) National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway N.E., Mail Stop F-29, Atlanta, GA 30341

Although White women have a higher incidence of breast cancer, African American women are more likely to die from it. Group disparities persist even after controlling for access to care. Factors contributing to this health disparity likely are numerous and complex. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a promising approach for including stakeholders in investigations of group differences in health. In this study, CBPR was used to include community members as co-investigators via a three-phase iterative process. Fifteen of Chicago's 77 designated neighborhood areas, all predominately African American and located on the South Side, were targeted. Specific recruitment techniques were utilized to obtain a representative sample from each neighborhood area. Focus groups based on CBPR principles were held within the neighborhoods in which participants resided and were designed to allow issues, beliefs, and concerns to emerge in unstructured interviews. Data obtained were used to inform other research projects. Five hundred and five women and men age 18 years and over were interviewed in 49 groups. Analysis using NVIVO software revealed a paucity of information on breast cancer in the community and culturally-sensitive mechanisms for building the community capacity of those affected by breast cancer. Phase II is the first ever South Side breast cancer summit, planned by focus group members and project investigators, to which the 1300 residents who volunteered for the CBPR project were invited. Its purpose is to disseminate findings from phase I and, using a small group problem-solving approach, develop community-generated interventions, to be implemented in Phase III.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the presentation, the participant will be able to (
• understand how to use community based participatory research (CBPR) to inform multi-level transdisciplinary research investigations in health disparities; (2)understand how to implement CBPR to include a broad spectrum of constituents within a geographic area of interest as opposed to focusing only on community groups and leaders; and (
• explain how a qualitative software program such as NVIVO can be used as a tool to identify themes raised by community stakeholders in the CBPR process.

Related Web page: cihdr.uchicago.edu

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation